Silver
by jessara40k
Summary: Sequel to 'The Foxhole' and 'Reverberations'. Bakura has many Aspects to his personality, what happens when he is denied all but one.
1. Chapter 1

Seto smiled as he knocked on the Bakuras' door, remembering how pleased his little brother was when he realised these visits _weren't_ business trips, but personal. Mokuba'd been overjoyed to realise that Seto had 'made friends' with someone, _anyone_ would have satisfied him he suspected. And when he'd found the records of the arrangements Seto had made to have the two of them tested for STDs he'd concluded - almost correctly - that he was considering becoming their lover. It had been rather amusing when Mokuba had insisted on talking to him about that, asking if he was sure he wanted to get involved with the two Bakuras, weren't threesomes supposed to be dangerous? He still wasn't sure whether to be amused at how protective his little brother was being, or horrified that Mokuba felt he needed to protect him emotionally.

He didn't have any more time to muse on the subject when Silver opened the door, stepping to one side to invite him in without words. At first Seto had been uncomfortable around Silver outside of a scene, since he never spoke without explicit permission, and when he did speak it was usually two or three words, followed by 'Master', but now that Bakura trusted him enough to allow his core self to show unmixed he found any addition of Touzokuou more disturbing. It was far harder for him to see how Touzokuou was built from Bakura's core self than to see how Silver was, even if at times Touzokuou was unnervingly similar to the persona Seto'd developed to deal with Gozaburo and the rest of the world.

"Nervous?" Wraith was inspecting his belt knife as Seto followed Silver into the living room. This was going to be the first time he went to any of the clubs as 'Bronze', and the nerves he'd quieted by thinking of Mokuba's concern came rushing back.

"A bit." He was fairly certain he could avoid embarrassing Wraith as Bronze, but not entirely, and he didn't have as much confidence in the glamor that was supposed to keep him from being recognised as he perhaps should.

"Hmm." Seto glanced at Silver, kneeling at Wraith's feet and moved to pick up the wig that keyed his glamor as Bronze - once he'd stripped and put the wig on all the rules Wraith had taught him applied, and he would submit to Wraith, and to Silver if he was commanded to, but until then, they were equals.

"Wait." Wraith took hold of his wrist, keeping him from moving away. "There's one thing I wanted to check about tonight. You said you didn't want to do a scene in the clubs, but would you be willing to suck me off underneath the table, or sixty-nine with Silver for my pleasure?"

"Yes to the first." It wouldn't require any exposure on his part after all. "No to the second, or at least not yet." He modified his refusal in case it made Wraith angry. He'd done that with Silver a lot, training in the refinements of oral sex or on the three occasions that Bakura wasn't Silver when he visited he'd been told to practise on him.

"Go and change into the outfit in the usual room then."

"Yes Wraith-sama." He didn't even have to think about his response as he walked through to the room they used for most of their scenes. The outfit waiting for him wasn't too problematic; it consisted of a tunic and loose trousers in dark red velvet, matching the outfit Silver was wearing perfectly. There was also bronze jewellery, bracelets and anklets and a bronze chain for his waist, all just like the jewellery Silver was wearing save for the material. And bronze nail polish, with a note saying 'fingers and toes', although he'd have guessed that from the fact that all of Silver's nails were painted silver. Obviously Wraith had decided not to bother with make-up other than the dark red lipstick waiting for him, since Seto hadn't managed to learn how to put it on properly yet.

He stripped swiftly, and put the wig on; triggering the glamor that altered his eyes and hid his scars and the few recognisable tattoos he'd used to celebrate a few occasions he considered turning points in his life. Then he dressed and painted his toe nails before adding the jewellery and his collar, something he'd managed to get comfortable wearing despite its slight similarity to the dog collar Gozaburo used to put him in. Finally he painted his finger nails, then his lips and walked back to kneel in front of Wraith-sama, forehead to the floor. He felt his Master's fingers in his hair, even though it was a wig the spells they'd put on it made it feel as if it was his natural hair, and turned his head to nuzzle at his Master's hand when it moved down to caress his cheek. Then Wraith-sama removed his hand.

"Up." Bronze obeyed, eyes cast submissively down. "We'll be travelling to the club I have in mind through the Shadow Realm. You'll be supply the energy. Velvet Glove's one of the more mainstream places in the local scene, so it should be a comparatively easy introduction for you. Give me your hands, both of you." Bronze held out his left hand, he'd been taught to offer that hand when Wraith-sama wanted to use his energy. He'd agreed to allow Ryou the ability to draw on his Shadow Magic whenever he wanted, and submitted to a binding Ryou had created to do just that a month into his training. Seto had _never_ really liked the idea of Shadow Magic, and besides he never used it himself, except to summon his Blue Eyes White Dragons on occasion.

Bronze shivered as he felt the Shadow Realm form around them, even though they all had enough Shadow Magic to survive here it was still vaguely uncomfortable, and even now Seto had nightmares about his first time here, and the Penalty Game Yami'd imposed on him. When they returned to the real world they were in what seemed to be a changing room, and for a moment Bronze wanted to ask about the door fee, but he knew better. Wraith-sama still explained though.

"I paid our entry fees in advance; I've got the tokens that say we have the right to be here. We'll probably spend most of our time in the more public area, but possibly with a visit to the lower level and the more interesting areas."

Bronze was pretty sure that if it wasn't for him Wraith-sama would be spending most of the evening in 'the more interesting areas', but he knew better than to try to apologise for it, even wordlessly. Instead he vowed to be as perfect as he could for his Master, and to try not to react badly to anything that happened, or embarrass him. He kept his eyes lowered, but watched everything that he could from beneath his lowered lashes, and took full advantage of his peripheral vision using the skills he'd learned over the past three months. He followed three steps behind Wraith-sama, and one to the left, mirroring Silver to the right of their Master.

Wraith-sama went directly to the bar, ordering three drinks, one an absinthe cocktail, and one each of red and white wine. The barman presented them on a small tray, and all it took was a subtle flick of the fingers on their Master's right hand to tell them that Silver was to take the tray. Wraith-sama walked away, leading them through the club in search of what he eventually found - a single chair set back to the wall, with a small table beside it. When he sat Bronze knelt at his feet to his left, but Silver still stood until Wraith-sama smiled at him.

"Offering pose." Silver immediately sunk to his knees, lifting the tray as he did so that at no point did it move more than an inch away from its starting height and it ended up held above his bowed head. Wraith-sama moved each of the glasses to the table before taking the tray and sliding it beneath the table. "Break stance." And then Silver relaxed and crawled to kneel to their Master's right, mirroring Bronze. Wraith-sama laughed at that, and patted his lap. "No, up here." Silver obediently climbed up into his lap, and began to snuggle into their Master's body. Then Wraith-sama picked up the glass of red wine, taking a mouthful, and then giving it to him in a kiss, one of the things Bronze had learned how to respond to before he'd consider bringing him out on the scene.

He expected to have to wait until Wraith-sama had finished playing with Silver to get a drink himself, but instead when the glass was still nearly two thirds full Wraith-sama pushed Silver down to the floor beside him.

"Help Bronze drink." And he passed the glass of wine down to Silver. Bronze knew that Silver didn't _like_ doing this sort of thing, but Wraith-sama was determined they'd both accept his decisions on their hierarchy, and so Silver roughly gathered Bronze into his lap, taking a mouthful of red wine, then letting it flow into Bronze's mouth when he kissed him. He moaned into the other's lips, even if Silver didn't appreciate having to do this, Bronze loved the attention from both of the silver haired men. He'd never realised how much he needed to give up control before, but Wraith-sama had taught him that, and Silver had taught him not to feel ashamed of it. They were both so strong in very different ways, and their strengths complimented each other, just as they did in their other lives as Ryou and Bakura/Touzokuou. But if Wraith-sama had allowed it, perhaps if he'd been more experienced Bronze would have been as happy to take Silver's place and dominate the spirit while submitting to the teen if it made Silver more content.

It didn't matter, and he put the thoughts from his mind, just enjoying the feel of Silver's hands on his body and the slight roughness as he obeyed Wraith-sama's command.

-o-()-o-

Bakura could see how it aroused Bronze when he was handled roughly, even by a fellow slave, so he didn't have any problem taking his temper at having to merge with Silver to take care of him out on the submissive. The way he was letting Bronze drink was designed to make him feel vulnerable, and to emphasise the dominance of the one giving the drink to him, and Silver knew how effective it was from the many times Wraith-sama had let him drink like that. It also made it impossible for Bakura to give Bronze more liquid than he could easily swallow, or he'd have done so the first time Wraith-sama had told him to do this, on the basis that if he screwed up Ryou-sama wouldn't ask him to do it again.

"Enough of that Silver. Pass me the wine back." He obeyed, handing the nearly half full glass back up to their Master and letting go of Bronze, pushing him out of his lap when he didn't climb out of his own accord. But not roughly enough to be anything other than exciting to Bronze, so that Ryou-sama wouldn't have a reason to punish him for it. Even if his punishments were enjoyable often enough it wasn't the same knowing that he'd disappointed his Master and displeased him as it was when they were playing for pleasure.

"Bronze, up here." Wraith-sama let the taller man climb up into his lap before reaching for the second glass of wine and smiling down at Bakura. "Silver, take your tunic off." After pulling the tunic off Bakura folded it carefully and glanced up to Wraith-sama for further instructions, placing it on the table carefully at his gesture towards it. "Display pose 2."

Bakura glanced at his Master from beneath lowered lashes to confirm, then moved to stand in the specified pose, legs so far apart he could barely keep his balance, arms folded behind his back, each hand gripping the opposite elbow, and bent forward until his torso was parallel to the floor. He was still to Wraith-sama's left, and if he stood upright he would be facing towards the same direction as his Master. But his positioning didn't seem to please Ryou-sama, as his Master reached out and tugged him into a different position, putting his body into easier reach so that his Master could touch him and play with his body whenever he wanted to. Wraith-sama would touch him every so often, pinching a nipple, or running his nails lightly along Bakura's flank or stomach, just enough to keep him in a constant state of low level arousal. Most of the other 'dominants' who stopped to speak with Wraith-sama asked to touch him as well, but that was a privilege Ryou-sama only shared if Bakura was being punished.

He knew his body was covered in sweat by the time Ryou-sama spoke to him again, and the glass of white wine was half empty too.

"Break stance and come here." Wraith-sama patted his lap, newly emptied by Bronze sliding back down to his knees. Bakura took the invitation and snuggled into his Master's embrace, letting his eyes fall half shut as his Master petted him properly and began to feed him more wine. It was as comforting as it always was to be vulnerable in Wraith-sama's presence, no defences up against him, knowing that all he needed to worry about was pleasing the other..._not_ his increasingly difficult efforts to distract Zork, or trying to gather the Millennium Items, in the desperate hope that when he got them all he'd be able to goad the Pharaoh into destroying them and hopefully freeing his kin's souls before Zork could use them to destroy the world and everything that stemmed from it, including the afterlife.

Wraith-sama laughed, dipping his finger into the wine and circling each of Bakura's nipples in turn before licking the wine off, and then fastening belled clamps on the sensitised and erect nipples. There wasn't much wine left in the glass by now, one, perhaps two at best, mouthfuls and Wraith-sama dipped his fingers in, holding out the hand for Bronze to suck the wine off them, finishing the glass in that way. When that glass was finished he put it back on the table and reached for the red wine, a frown of displeasure appearing on his face, and through their link Bakura could tell that he'd only just noticed it was still half full. So instead he took the absinthe cocktail, changing targets so smoothly Bakura didn't think _he'd_ have noticed were it not for their link and finishing it off with a single swallow. He handed the two empty glasses down to Bronze, and added a quick warding to his collar, one that would discourage others from approaching him.

"Take these back to the bar." When Bronze stood up and took the empty glasses Wraith-sama added some more instructions. "You may defend yourself however you want from any advances, provided you try to get rid of them by touching your collar first. I know that might not always work here." Because there were so many tourists about. Wraith-sama waited until Bronze was out of earshot before turning Bakura on his lap.

"You deliberately dawdled over giving Bronze his wine." It wasn't a question, he'd probed Bakura's mind through their link to establish that, so he didn't bother responding. "Are you jealous of him? You may answer." The words were an afterthought, but if he'd broken that rule...

"No Master." And he really wasn't jealous, he just resented the position Wraith-sama wanted him in. But Ryou-sama didn't seem to realise that, as Silver, or even as he was at the moment Bakura _couldn't_ protest his will, and when he _wasn't_ Silver or mixed with Silver he was too embarrassed to explain to his Master. And the one time he'd tried to explain...Ryou-sama hadn't understood how fragile his mental stability was, and how much it was eroding away, hadn't understood, or hadn't believed.

"But it was still defiance, however slight. Over my knee." Bakura obeyed immediately, shifting until his legs were hanging over one side of Wraith-sama's lap, and his head and arms over the other, ass in the air. His Master began to spank him, as if he was a child still, and Bakura _knew_ that everyone close enough to watch _was_, he could see it through the curtain of his hair. He stayed silent, knowing that it would impress the onlookers, and that his Master didn't like to hear noises unless Bakura was given permission or _couldn't_ keep from making them - and a spanking wasn't severe enough for that - but he wriggled in Wraith-sama's lap and grasp enough to make a good show. It was just ten blows, but that was enough that the sting wouldn't fade immediately, and when Wraith-sama had finished he ordered Bakura to return to his earlier position. Ryou-sama ran his hand through Bakura's hair, once, making a sound of displeasure as it snagged on a tangle, then he pushed Bakura back down to the floor to his right, and pulled his head into his lap where he could use a comb to work out the tangles.

"No words, but make any noises you want." Ryou-sama always gave Bakura permission to make sounds when he was combing his hair, he found it amusing the way Bakura could take as much pain as his Master wanted to inflict in a scene or a punishment, and still object when his hair was combed and the comb hit a tangle. He obviously hadn't angered his Master too much by dallying over giving Bronze his wine, or Wraith-sama wouldn't have just snapped his fingers to his left, telling Bronze to resume his place kneeling to that side of their Master - he'd have made a point of putting his play with Silver aside to play with Bronze. Once he'd finished combing Bakura's hair he pulled Bronze back up into his lap and began to feed the red wine to the other slave, occasionally dipping his fingers in it, and holding them out for Bakura to drink from. Bakura made a point of showing off just how good he was with his mouth when he was granted that opportunity, wrapping his tongue around them and sucking them the way he would if it was his Master's cock in his mouth, not his fingers. _Bronze_ hadn't done that, _or_ gotten the reaction Bakura seemed to have from the way the other was wriggling in their Master's lap.

But their Master had a lot of self-control, and he didn't do anything about his obvious arousal until he'd finished with the wine. Then he slid Bronze down his knees and pulled his face into his groin as he unfastened his trousers to expose his cock. For a second Bakura could see Bronze hesitating, this wasn't _quite_ what they'd discussed before they left, but it was close enough, and he seemed determined to show Wraith-sama everything he'd learned. And Ryou-sama seemed content to allow him to display his skills, for a while anyway, since he didn't control Bronze's motion with a hand in his hair.

Afterwards he stood and fastened his trousers, telling Bakura to get dressed before leading them into the private areas, stopping to watch some of the scenes for a few moments, just glancing at the subs and slaves left in bondage. He started avoiding the two displays of whipping when Bronze stepped close enough to him that he could touch their Master on hearing a whip crack. But there was one Domme displaying how well she could use a knife on her sub, and that caught his attention as nothing else could. The sub was a slender man, with typical Japanese colouring, dark brown hair and eyes, and bronze skin, chained with his hands above his head stretching his body in a smooth line. And the Domme was using a _much_ bigger knife than Bakura would use even in a fight, it was bordering on being a short sword, obviously more for a mind fuck than any real purpose, especially with the way she was teasing him with it. Once that was obvious Wraith-sama turned to leave the room, just as Marik was coming in.

-o-()-o-

"Lord Wraith. What a pleasure." There was an edge of gleeful malice to Marik's voice that Ryou didn't like.

"Are you still going by 'Aku' demonling, or do you use some other name?" Ryou's own voice was cold, emotionless as it wouldn't be wise to give away any clues for an opponent to use against him...and at the moment Marik was an opponent, if not an enemy.

"Aku will do just _fine_." He was smirking, almost leering at Silver, and there was no way Ryou was letting him hurt his property. Of course he'd need time to get through Marik's defences, poor as they were, so... "I think we need to have a little chat. In private."

"Very well Aku. There is probably a room that isn't being used around here somewhere. Shall we go and look for it?" As he spoke Ryou sent tendrils of Shadow Magic out towards the yami, testing his defences, noting what reactions he got to each probe, and mapping the defences out. Ryou could probably overwhelm them all at once with the power he could draw on from Bronze and Silver (since Bakura had suggested the spell that allowed Ryou to draw on his Shadow Magic as if it was his own when his collar wasn't hidden) but that would be a waste of energy he'd only use if he ran out of time and had no other option. Talking to Marik while he tried to find a more subtle way through his defences would be better. That way he'd have plenty of power to spare for whatever he decided to do to him.

The room they eventually ended up in had a _rack_ standing by...for show most likely, it was just the sort of over the top piece of equipment that amateurs might get enamoured with, and that made for a really good mind fuck. There was also a cage taking up one side of the room...Ryou smiled at Marik and opened the cage, the order implicit as he looked at his slave and his sub. It would get them both out of the line of fire anyway, and playing these games seemed to do something to Bakura, Ryou wasn't going to put him at risk if he could help it.

Marik watched as Silver and Bronze curled together on the floor of the cage, not seeming to care that they were being locked in. Ryou knew that wasn't exactly the case, they just both had faith that he'd let them out again when the time came...and if worst came to worst _Bakura_ had the skills to pick the lock and get them out, or to leave through the Shadow Realm. Still, it would be best to make sure, to plan for all contingencies...although Ryou was confident of his victory a 'go to hell' plan was always important.

:Bakura. If I'm killed or put out of the fight get out of here with Seto. I don't want you to face Marik at a disadvantage.: He could feel Bakura's resistance to the idea, but he'd be using Bakura's Shadow Magic to fight Marik, as well as Seto's, and even in the best case scenario Bakura would be pulling out of being Silver when the fight started.

-As you wish Yadonushi-sama.- Ryou smiled as he saw Bakura pull Seto into his arms protectively...despite the height difference and he pulled one of the daggers he wore on his forearms from the glamor that hid it, tossing it into the cage near Bakura.

"Tell me Bakura...why do you look like your hikari when you play these games? And why did you let him take over the role of Wraith for that bet?" Marik thought he was Bakura in disguise? That certainly opened up possibilities. Ryou put a cruel smile on his face and leaned back against the cage bars, taking a dagger from his belt and the glamor hiding it to play with as he replied.

"Why do you _think_ demonling?" He'd already found one way through Marik's defences, a hair thin crack in the wall blocking hostile Shadow Magic, but that wasn't enough, and he probably had multiple layers of defences the way Ryou did. So he had to keep on distracting him, and play for time. Imitating Bakura-sama should work, and he left the cage to stalk over to the yami. "Well?" He let just a touch of Shadow Magic play along the blade, it would act as a poison if he could get it into the other, not a very strong poison, but enough to slow him down a bit.

"I'm sure the Pharaoh won't be happy to hear that you've been abusing your hikari this way, and now you've got another victim."

"And what makes you think this isn't something Silver _wants_ and enjoys? _He_ started this relationship, believe it or not. And besides, after the show at The Foxhole none of the Pharaoh's groupies are going to believe I'm anyone but Ryou using the name Wraith." Ryou smiled, waiting to see how Marik would respond...from his probes it almost felt as if his Shadow Magic defences really were a single, heavy wall and Ryou was insinuating his own Shadow Magic through every crack he could find. Every last word he'd spoken was true, so what if they were misleading.

"But if Lord Wraith is Ryou then that makes Silver the great Touzokuou." And now Marik had hit upon the truth, even if he thought it was a lie. "How would the Pharaoh react to that do you think? And what will you do to keep me from spreading the tale of how I found you in a BDSM club being dominated by your pathetic hikari?"

"This." Ryou smiled sweetly. He'd got enough of his power through Marik's defences to directly target the pain centres of his brain, sending him falling to the floor, screaming and thrashing. And all of his defences went right down as well. Ryou had a deck on him, ready for combat and he used Chain Energy to bind Marik in place as he knelt beside the yami. "You aren't going to tell anyone _anything_ about what you saw here. I won't have anyone damaging Silver's reputation like that...or Bronze's for that matter." Ryou hoped that Marik could hear him over his own screams, but if he couldn't it didn't matter. He rolled him over onto his stomach, and pulled his jacket and shirt up to expose his back, cutting one of the hieroglyphs on his back open again, the one saying 'silence' and binding the compulsion to never reveal what he'd just found out to anyone into it. Then he stopped stimulating the pain centres, and gave a single jolt to the pleasure centres, before setting the chain energy to fade away and opening the cage again.

He stepped inside and held out a hand for each of his lovers. Bakura stood first, helping Seto to his feet and offering Ryou the dagger from his forearm at the same time. Once Ryou'd put that away he took Ryou's left hand while Seto took his right.

The risk of embarrassing or endangering Silver and Bronze somehow was the _only_ reason Ryou didn't stay and find another way to hurt and humiliate Marik. And that was somewhat unnerving, that he'd changed so much, but he pushed the thought away and focused on getting them all back home.

As soon as he let go of their hands Bronze dropped to his knees, shaking, and pulled off his wig, breaking the glamor, and telling Ryou that the game was over for him, while Silver almost collapsed into his arms, shaking every bit as badly as Seto. Ryou cursed mentally while considering his options. Both of his lovers needed him, but...Silver couldn't verbalise _why_ or what was wrong with him. Ryou'd learned about that, how Bakura had somehow ended up blocked against saying anything about his problems when he was in the right mood for these games, and he didn't automatically return to being himself if there _was_ a problem.

Ryou shifted Silver into his left arm and knelt by Seto, wrapping his right arm around the CEO.

"Seto, what's wrong?"

"I...don't know." His voice was no more than a whisper. "There wasn't a problem until we came back here." Ryou blinked, and scanned Seto and Silver with his Shadow Magic.

"I'm sorry. This was my fault. I drew on your Shadow Magic too quickly after I cursed Marik to make sure he stayed quiet about what he saw and I didn't draw on it through the right pathways. It's a reaction to the way I drew on your Shadow Magic, nothing more. Have you ever had problems because you stayed awake too long?"

"Yes, with Gozaburo." Why was that not a surprise, Ryou thought ruefully. He'd known Seto was a workaholic, and that's why he'd chosen that particular question, there simply weren't enough hours in the day for Seto to do everything he did without skimping on sleep at some point. But he hadn't exactly anticipated Seto admitting that his history of sleep deprivation started in his childhood.

"Well, this is just the same thing. For both of you. Although if it was stressful to watch me deal with Marik that probably exacerbated the problem." It had certainly been stressful to actually _deal_ with Marik. Even though Ryou had the ability to draw on Bakura's _and_ Seto's Shadow Magic - either of which was equal to Marik's Shadow Magic - it was more awkward for him to use Shadow Magic that way, and avoid hurting them the way he just had. So he'd been focusing on trying to keep Marik from realising that he wasn't Bakura, making sure he didn't attack, and finding a way through his defences. "Come on." He stood, pulling his two lovers up with him. Seto needed to be pampered, and it would probably settle Silver down better than anything else _to_ pamper someone.

He guided them up to the bedroom he shared with Silver, pushing Seto down to the bed and beginning to strip him.

"Silver, get some massage oil and start to warm it up. I want you to work all the kinks and tension out of Seto's body." Silver didn't reply, just bowed his head and moved to obey. Ryou stroked Seto's hair gently and began the process of getting his nail polish off once he was naked. "You'll feel better after Silver's given you a massage. We won't be playing again tonight, and I'm sorry your first visit to the scene with me went wrong like that."

"It's not your fault. It was good up until Marik turned up. Can we do it again some other time?" Ryou'd half expected this to turn Seto off the scene for a while, he'd made a point of pushing his limits slightly, and then Marik had caused problems.

-o-()-o-


	2. Chapter 2

Seto waited for Ryou to make his decision, he didn't think he'd shamed Lord Wraith, but he might have, and he didn't want to assume.

"Yes, if you want to." Seto was surprised by that response. Why wouldn't he want to? Even Marik hadn't realised who he was, proof enough that the glamor Ryou used on him _worked_, and he'd even enjoyed it when Wraith pushed him just a little further than he'd agreed. The only reason he'd had a problem watching Wraith deal with Marik was that he felt he should have dealt with the spirit himself, and he'd kept on feeling these tugs at his Shadow Magic, pulling him off balance mentally. Then he felt Silver's hands on his body, starting to massage him and he couldn't keep from moaning in pleasure. But he couldn't help think that he wouldn't have needed this if they'd stayed, he hadn't actually had any real problems until Ryou took them through the Shadow Realm.

"Lord Wraith, why did we have to leave when we did?" He wondered as he spoke why he'd used that name, then dismissed it, it wasn't important.

"Because I didn't want to take the risk that anyone would figure out _I'd_ been the one to hurt Marik. Screams like his couldn't come from anything consensual; Velvet Glove isn't one of the bottom feeder clubs where the slaves really are slaves, abused and owned, and where consent doesn't matter, or where it's acceptable for two Masters to fight over a slave, or to sell a slave without his consent." And the only way people wouldn't be certain that Ryou had hurt Marik was if he wasn't seen coming out of the room? Even though people had seen them all go in together? But he was supposed to leave all of that to Ryou, and besides he wouldn't be considered at fault for what happened to Marik. And there was something else that intrigued him more.

"Bottom feeder clubs?" He wasn't really focusing on what Ryou said that much any more, somehow Silver's massage was making him feel sleepy and almost sated...and just a little bit guilty, since he _knew_ Silver had been as badly affected by Ryou's confrontation with Marik and their swift exit through the Shadow Realm as he had.

"That's where people who don't really care about their slaves gather, generally they're illegal, or at least the things that happen there are. We were invited to visit one once, because I only do bloodplay in public and because Silver is the perfect slave to be honest, I refused to have anything to do with anyone I saw there after that." Yes, Silver really was the perfect slave, as long as you didn't know about Touzokuou, Seto was well aware that he dominated Bronze purely because his Master wished it, and what greater submission was there for Silver than to go against his nature like that?

"You didn't approve of the morals there? But you couldn't do anything legal. Could I?" He enjoyed this, and he knew what it was like to be enslaved, even if he'd entered into his slavery with open eyes, for Mokuba's sake, it had gone far beyond what he'd expected when he won that chess game.

"Not really, the bottom feeder clubs tend to move around too much for any efforts to control them to work. And while I didn't approve of the way they treated their slaves what got me was when one bastard challenged me for Silver. I gave him a heart attack using my Shadow Magic, after I'd beaten him." Not quite the response he was expecting, Seto was still mulling it over when Silver seemed to have finished the massage.

He felt Ryou slap him on the ass and started in shock, twisting to look at him. He had an arm around Silver's waist, holding the slave to his body, with Silver's head resting on his chest. "How are you feeling? I'm talking about physically more than emotionally." Seto suspected that Ryou'd meant emotionally too, and added that in to cater to him, so he answered both questions at the same time.

"Completely recovered. What about Silver?"

"I think it helped being instructed to pamper you like that. And it'll make him feel even better when I take him." Ryou frowned, appearing to concentrate on something, probably to do with the Shadow Magic he finally acknowledged he could sense stirring between the pair. Seto didn't like it when he sensed that, it always made him feel like an outsider, even if he didn't admit it to himself. "It's as if Bakura-sama isn't aware of what's happening, I can only sense what I feel when he's in submission, acting as Silver. It's not even like it was at the start of the evening, or most of the time when you're here."

"Is it like what he 'feels like' when I'm _not_ here and you're playing with him?"

"Yes. Except for at The Foxhole and when I was learning how to Top, then he felt like he does when you're here. Why?"

"I...think you should ask him about his aspects when he gets back to normal. He told me in confidence." Seto rolled over and half sat up, shrugging. Ryou didn't seem too happy about hearing that, but he _did_ accept it. "Still, I can usually get him to feel like he does when you're with us at will. I can't this time. I've got an idea about how to help him. You can either get dressed and out of the way, or you can help."

"Help how?"

"I plan to take him. You can either lie back, prepare me and let me ride you at the same time, or you can leave." Ryou wasn't going to give him much control if he accepted his offer, but...

"Where's the lube?" Ryou laughed and handed Silver over to him.

"Keep hold of him while I get some packets and see to something else. It's a bad idea to use the same container of lube on more than one bottom." Seto remembered then that the oil Ryou used with him always smelled slightly different to the oil he used with Silver. Probably a way to keep them separate, and the _first_ time he'd used packets of lube. He lay back, letting Silver rest his head over his heart the way he had with Mokuba when his brother was younger and had a nightmare. Ryou wasn't gone too long, even if he was naked by the time he returned carrying three or four packets of lube.

"Give him back to me." Seto watched as Ryou began slowly undressing Silver, lavishing attention on every part of his body as it was revealed. Once Silver was naked Ryou knelt over Seto's waist and laid Silver down with his back against Seto's legs and his legs splayed on either side of Ryou's waist and Seto's torso. "Prepare me while I prepare him."

Seto decided to just do the same thing to Ryou that he did when he was preparing himself and used a gradual escalation from one finger, to two, and finally three. He was encouraged by Ryou's quiet words, waiting for permission before adding each finger and stopped when he thought Ryou would be ready.

"I need a bit more prep than that. I don't bottom often and only to Silver before this. You should be flattered." He was, and he accepted that Ryou was going to be in charge even if he was the one being taken without question.

"I'm going to move the both of us onto your knees, I'd like you to sit up a bit once I've moved, nearly upright. Then I'll take you into me, and place Silver onto me once I've got my back against your chest. Then I'll pull Silver onto me, he'll probably wrap his legs around both of us." The words weren't entirely clear, but that didn't matter to Seto, he'd gotten a clear picture from Ryou's mind and he obeyed. He shut his eyes as Ryou sank down onto him, the tight heat was incredible, and Silver's massage had been arousing as well as soothing; he needed to focus on not coming immediately. The next thing he felt was Ryou shifting about on his lap to impale Silver and Silver's legs wrapping around them both.

Seto didn't really pay any attention to how Ryou moved them both, focusing instead on staying still, but eventually he couldn't, and he began to thrust himself, despite the weight he was bearing. But that was just frustrating, and he lay back and rolled until they were all on their sides, so he could thrust freely. Seto wasn't sure who climaxed first, just that afterwards they were all lying tangled together, sticky and sweaty. But Ryou was the one to sit up first, managing to disengage from Seto somehow, and presumably from Silver too, then reaching down and stroking their hair back away from their face.

"I started running a bath before I came back, and I left one of our smarter Shadow Creatures to turn it off when it was full. Want to join us, Seto?" Ryou stood as he spoke, and picked Silver up gently as he finished.

"No." Seto had the time to share a bath with them, but he was sure that Ryou was only offering from duty, and he didn't want that. "But I'll take a shower and get cleaned up..._after_ you've sent the Shadow Creature away."

"Wait here with Silver then. He'll bring you to the bathroom once I've dismissed her." Her? It didn't matter. "Silver." Ryou took hold of Silver's chin, tilting his face until he was looking at Ryou. "You may speak to tell Seto when He can come to the bathroom." Then Ryou left and Silver curled closer to Seto, who automatically pulled him into his arms as Silver had so many times for him. But this was much more satisfying than that was emotionally he reflected.

"We can go now." Silver's voice was quiet, but Seto heard him and they went to the bathroom together, Seto stepping into the shower while Silver climbed into the bath, and Ryou's arms. As Seto was leaving after he'd finished he saw Silver reach up to touch his collar, and the collar disappeared.

-o-()-o-

Ryou expected Bakura to back away after he triggered the glamor hiding his collar, and he focused on the wards to let him do so without being embarrassed about it. But he didn't, instead he just snuggled closer to Ryou, and it bothered him a little bit. Ryou bit his lip, and kept on holding his yami, stroking his hair gently, as if Bakura was still Silver.

:Are you alright Bakura-sama: For some reason he felt it was important to speak mind to mind, to reassure him, and Ryou went with his instincts, even if he didn't know why.

-Don't call me that Yadonushi-sama, please. Just use my name, no honorific, not now.- Ryou realised then that Bakura didn't feel the same as he usually did when he'd hidden his collar. He felt a little like a blend of how he was with Seto, Bronze, around for their games, with how he was when Ryou was the only person there and they weren't playing.

:If you want Bakura. But you didn't answer my question, how are you feeling after what happened: Ryou stopped petting Bakura then, sliding that hand down to join the other at his shoulders, and holding his lover away from his body just a little.

-A bit insecure Yadonushi-sama.- Why was _Bakura_ using the honorific when he'd asked Ryou not to? -P-please, hold me close again.- Bakura only continued after Ryou'd wrapped him up in another embrace. -I...knew that all I could do to help you deal with Marik was to let you use my Shadow Magic however you wanted. And at the same time I knew that if you...failed to deal with him you expected me to just _run_, desert you, and I had to keep Seto from realising you felt at any risk. I...the only way I could do that was to just stop thinking really, retreat into obedience and trust in you, then something went wrong when you pulled on my Shadow Magic again and my mind sort of went dormant.- He shrugged in Ryou's arms. -I don't know how else to explain it.- Ryou got the feeling there was something Bakura wasn't telling him, but he did know one thing that might get him some answers.

:Seto told me I should ask you about your aspects. Can you explain what he meant:

-I'm sorry Yadonushi-sama! I should have told you _first_, not him. And you shouldn't have to ask, but...I was scared.- It wasn't even a reluctant admission of his fear, which was what Ryou would have expected from Bakura, it was more as if his fear of revealing this had extended to a fear of mentioning it too. -There's three aspects, to me, my core self, Bakura, and I only let that show unadulterated when I'm alone or only with people I know I can trust implicitly - and I don't trust anyone but you like that. Then there's Silver, and Touzokuou. Touzokuou is the persona that developed when all my family and kin were slaughtered when I was a child, and he's what I show the world, because I don't feel it's safe to show my core self fully. Until you received the Millennium Ring even those I trusted most only got to see Bakura merged with Touzokuou, since they were mostly criminals like me, but that's what most people see in this time, since life isn't quite as dangerous in ways that require Touzokuou. Silver only emerged recently...I created him after you freed me from Zork's control, letting me kill him, I'd rather not go into too much detail on that, but the elements I used to form him always existed. I told the Priest to think of it as a form of self-induced and highly controlled multiple personality syndrome, except both Touzokuou and Silver are subordinated to and controlled by my core personality.-

:It's alright. I'm not upset.: Ryou actually _was_, a bit, but he understood that sometimes it's easier to tell something to a near stranger than to your lover. Bakura just nuzzled into Ryou's chest, asking for a bit more comfort. :So, you normally let Silver take over when we play:

-Yes. You named him, and it's good not to have to think sometimes. But when you want me to think, when we're playing with Bronze I...my core self merges with Silver. Most of my reactions are Silver's, but I have my normal capacity for thought.- That sounded strange, that apparently Silver wasn't capable of thinking as well as Bakura did, but Ryou didn't question it, not yet, there'd be time for that later, if Bakura was willing to talk about it in the future.

:Is that why you have issues with Bronze? Because you have to merge with Silver when we're playing with him: Ryou wasn't entirely certain about his deduction, and a little hurt as well, that Bakura'd had to create a whole new persona to love him, even if he did show more trust in Ryou than he had in anyone else, ever.

-Not really. I'm not a switch, but even merged with Silver I can't refuse to do anything you want. If I could I'd just do whatever it took to make Bronze refuse to submit to me.- Bakura drew away just a little bit, presumably from the shame Ryou sensed from him through their link.

:Even merged with Silver? Do you mean that you can only refuse me when you don't have any merging with Silver active? And I'm sorry, I'll stop trying to make you act like a switch. I'll treat you only as my slave and I won't ask you to get involved with Bronze anymore if it bothers you.: Ryou pulled Bakura back against his chest, stroking his hair in comfort and reassurance.

-Th-thank you.- Bakura nuzzled against his chest. -I wish I hadn't disappointed you. I wanted to tell you earlier, but...I just couldn't. I shouldn't be so proud when I'm not merged with Silver. And when I'm merged...I just can't bring myself to tell you, until now.- Ryou made a cognitive leap then.

:You're still merged a little then, you just aren't as much Silver and more...Bakura, your core self, than you usually are when we're playing with Bronze.:

-Yes. I'm not sure why I'm still merged with Silver, even a little bit. I...something about the way you dealt with Marik and brought us through the Shadow Realm pushed me into...sort of going dormant, my core self anyway, leaving Silver in sole control. And I only came back to awareness to try to take control back when you were bedding us, and that was only enough for me to merge the way I normally am when we're playing with Bronze. I only succeeded even this much when I got into the furo with you.- That was worrying, what if he ended up stuck this way?

:You don't have any ideas about why: Ryou kept petting Bakura to make sure he _knew_ that Ryou still wanted him and would keep him no matter what.

-No, I'm sorry. I wish I did.-

:Don't apologise, this isn't your fault, if anything it's mine. I have two ideas to help with this problem, either we just give it time, and see if you can get right back to normal after we've slept, or you go back to being only Silver and we hope that when you try to come back to yourself it's all the way. Which would you rather:

-I...- Bakura pulled back a bit from Ryou, and he let his lover sit up. -I'm not sure. What do you think would be better?-

:It is _your_ choice to make, not mine. I'd take the gamble of the second option, but the first option will allow you to try the second later if the first doesn't work.:

-What if there's only a limited time when the second option will work?- Bakura seemed half resigned as he let the glamor hiding his collar fade and his presence changed with it, to only Silver. Ryou waited, half-expecting him to try coming back to himself immediately, but he didn't, just waited there in Ryou's arms, no expectations, just prepared to please as required. Ryou slid his fingers down to Silver's ass, pressing gently, testing to see how he reacted. He was still relaxed enough from before, but Ryou wasn't sure there was enough oil left inside him. But there were bottles of oil all over the house, including here, and Ryou used the one by the side of the furo to slick himself and Silver before sliding inside his lover.

Silver wrapped his legs around Ryou's waist and his arms around his neck, tilting his head back and offering his own throat to Ryou's teeth. Ryou began by kissing his collarbones and moved up and along to focus on the windpipe and bite lightly, just not hard enough to hurt him. He took hold at Silver's hips, gripping hard enough to bruise him, just a little with his right hand, and controlling his movements easily while Ryou's left hand gripped Silver's shoulder. It was quick and crude, without bothering with any finesse, and Silver climaxed when he bit his nipple hard enough to make him bleed, and Ryou's own climax followed quickly.

"Wash me, my beautiful Silver." Ryou handed a washcloth to his lover and waited for him to obey. Silver seemed to make a point of arousing him as much as possible as he cleaned Ryou, but he allowed it and then taking the cloth from his lover he returned the favour.

"Get out and dry yourself off." Once Silver was dry Ryou got out of the furo himself. "Now dry me off." It did nothing to relieve his arousal and Ryou smiled at Silver as he knelt in front of him. "Take care of this for me." He took hold of Silver's hair, pulling his head to his groin and let him use his mouth however he chose. Silver was _very_ good at this, one reason he'd had him teach Bronze, and Ryou swiftly came down his throat. When Silver sat back on his heels he reactivated the glamor that hid his collar, and he was Bakura again, only Bakura, without Silver there at all. Ryou was ready to cry in relief and he dropped to his knees so he could wrap his arms around his yami.

-Let's just go to bed Yadonushi-sama.- Bakura hesitated, then seemed to decide it was worth continuing. -Do you mind if I sleep in your bed tonight?-

:No, of course I don't mind. I'm glad you don't have to be Silver to be intimate with me.:

-No, just to give up control to you.-

-o-()-o-

Bakura stretched slowly as he woke up, careful not to disturb his lover. It felt wonderful to wake up in Ryou's arms as himself, without the shield of Silver between himself and reality. He could remember waking up in Ryou's arms as Silver, but it didn't really compare, and he had to wonder if it would be the same if he actually had sex with Ryou in this persona. He bit his lip, he'd noticed Ryou's hurt that Bakura only had sex with him and only really acted loving when he was Silver at least in part. He didn't think Ryou realised that it wasn't the sex, or even the affection, not really, it was the loss of control, the vulnerability. But since he'd associated them in his mind would it be dangerous to try and sleep with Ryou without Silver as a buffer layer?

He made his decision then, wriggling out of Ryou's arms, and rolling the teen onto his back, pinning his hips down and taking him into his mouth.

"Wha...Bakura?" The total astonishment in Ryou's voice as he said that name cut deeply at Bakura, reminding him just how badly he'd failed his lover and his Master. "I thought you were only going to do this with me when you were Silver." And there was no mistaking the bitterness in his hikari's voice. It made Bakura want to retreat into being Silver and let his Master do with him as he pleased, let Ryou punish him for hurting him like that - but that would only hurt Ryou more. He reluctantly let Ryou's cock slip from his mouth and sat back on his heels.

"I'm sorry that I made you think that. I didn't have to create Silver to love you, I've _always _loved you. I created Silver because I felt the need to submit to you, and I was scared to be so vulnerable without _some_ way to control that. I've never been with you sexually without Silver involved because you always enjoyed having me submit so much." Then he realised how that could sound to Ryou and hastened to expand. "I love submitting to you, knowing that I'm yours, and I don't have to worry about anything but pleasing you, but I'm scared that if I don't keep control of _when_ I'm submissive I won't be able to defend you when I have to."

"So, you want to dominate me this time?" Ryou sounded almost meditative, but Bakura hated the idea that he'd let him do this out of some twisted sense of obligation.

"N-not the way you dominate me, just...give me control. I swear I won't abuse it, I could never abuse it. I told you that I'm not a switch, and I meant it, but..." Bakura trailed off, unable to articulate his problem and Ryou sat up, reaching to stroke his hair gently.

"You don't know how to put it, but you're scared that it would mess you up somehow if you submitted to me when you aren't Silver?"

"Yes, and I'm afraid that if we started off neutral then you'd end up dominating me because we fell into the familiar pattern." Bakura kept his eyes cast down, flushing. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't be so demanding." He hated feeling so confused, it would be so _easy_ to revert to form as Silver, and the idea of dominating Ryou didn't really do anything for him, but he'd _hurt_ Ryou last night and he hadn't even _realised_.

"And you think that if you start off in control it will balance out?"

"I...yes, I think so. I want to please you, but not to submit to you, not at the moment." Bakura nuzzled against Ryou's hand in a wordless plea.

"Do whatever you want." Bakura didn't know how to express his gratitude as Ryou removed his hand and lay back, waiting for Bakura to act. He bit his lip as he thought about what to do next, _knowing_ that it turned Ryou on a hell of a lot to see him like that. Bakura _wanted_ to have Ryou's cock in his mouth again, he'd felt it so much more vividly than when he was Silver, but he wasn't sure jumping in like that was the right thing to do. Perhaps instead of going straight for Ryou's cock he should start with more foreplay? Reluctantly Bakura decided not to go for what he wanted immediately and began to kiss Ryou and lick him in all the erogenous zones he'd long ago mapped out on his Master, including unusual places like the soft skin behind his knees as well as the obvious things like the nipples and earlobes. As he tried his best to drive his lover to distraction he was careful to position himself so as to hide how little this aroused him, he wasn't even half hard, despite the wonderful sounds Ryou was making.

Finally Ryou started to actually demand that Bakura suck him, instead of just moaning and hinting with his body language, although he retained enough self-control _not_ to grab hold of Bakura's head by the hair and take control the way he would have with Silver. And for the first time since he'd started this Bakura got a full erection. He took Ryou into his mouth, doing his best to make Ryou come immediately.

-Feel free to grab onto my hair _now_.- Bakura knew that was as much of a turn on for Ryou as it was for _him_ and he hadn't gotten Ryou to come yet. Ryou seemed startled, but he did comply, almost forcing himself down Bakura's throat and setting a slightly faster rhythm and climaxed swiftly.

"Damn! I'm sorry. You didn't want me to dominate you..." Ryou sounded anxious as he released Bakura's hair, letting him lift his head.

"It's alright. I wanted you to do that, I asked you to. Now just lie back and enjoy." Bakura licked the traces of Ryou's seed he hadn't been able to swallow from his lips, knowing how that affected him and his lover obeyed. Bakura was pretty sure _his_ reaction to that wasn't normal, he was sure most people, even other submissives, would have got an erotic charge from having their lover lie back at their command, but his erection softened a bit. He was still hard, hard enough to satisfy at least, but not as hard as he had been. He pushed that from his mind and lifted Ryou's hips, running his tongue along the crack in his ass, and probing at the entrance to his body with it. The earthy taste he found there sent his senses reeling, and he wasn't sure if it tasted like that because this was the first time he'd done something like this when he wasn't Silver, or because until now Ryou'd always cleaned himself thoroughly in this area beforehand, or had Bronze do the same. Ryou made a muffled noise that was equal parts pleasure and protest, but he didn't try to stop Bakura. It would be fun to see if he could get Ryou to come from this, perhaps later if he ever decided to do anything like this again, but not now. He had something else in mind for now. But he didn't have what he needed for that to hand, so he pushed away.

"I need to get some things. Do you mind waiting there?" He knew that _he_ wouldn't, as Silver, or he hoped as himself, but Wraith would unless it was some errand he'd sent Silver on and he wasn't sure where Ryou fell.

"If you're going to be rimming me again I want to get myself _clean_ first." It was an unequivocal demand, but about something reasonable and he wasn't really protesting the rest. Bakura'd enjoyed the taste in a weird way, but he wasn't going to object if it made Ryou more comfortable.

"If you want. I'll wait if I get back first." Bakura did get back first and he left the little packets of lube on top of the bed for Ryou to see, hiding the bottle of oil away and leaving a small bowl of water on the bedside cabinet.

"You want me to lie back down?" Bakura'd already placed a pillow in position to support Ryou's hips when he lay down, and he nodded in response.

"Please." When Ryou took up his previous position Bakura began to rim him again, until he was as loose as he could get from just Bakura's tongue and then Bakura began using his fingers and the packets of lube to finish stretching him.

"Shut your eyes please, and keep them closed until I tell you to open them." Bakura washed his fingers quickly and grabbed the bottle of oil before he knelt back between Ryou's spread legs, distracting him as he prepared himself by pressing forward enough that their cocks rubbed together. It made Ryou gasp in pleasure, but Bakura noted that he had enough self-discipline not to open his eyes, not yet; Bakura fully expected Ryou to open his eyes when he got to the next part. He didn't _want_ to be seme with Ryou, unless it was the way he was seme when he was Silver, lying flat on his back, tied down with Ryou on top of him, so he'd be uke, but sitting on top of Ryou so he had control. He suited action to thought, straddling Ryou's hips and sinking down, reaching a hand behind to guide Ryou into him.

Ryou's eyes flew open as he gasped, and Bakura leaned forward to lay a finger on his lips before he could apologise. "That's the reaction I hoped for." He kept a teasing smile on his face as he began to move, slowly at first, but building up speed as he got more comfortable. He hadn't prepared himself as well as he'd prepared Ryou, but he had a lot more experience and he knew he was smiling despite the slight pain.

Apparently he wasn't moving fast enough for Ryou, since the teen reached out and took hold of Bakura by the hips, forcing his motion to fit Ryou's choice of rhythm. Not that Bakura minded, instead he enthusiastically accepted Ryou's decision, and kept to the rhythm he set, freeing his lover's hands to do other things.

And afterwards he just snuggled into Ryou's arms, enjoying his scent and the knowledge that he'd pleased his lover.

-o-()-o-


	3. Chapter 3

Seto was glad to see that Mokuba hadn't tried to stay awake to meet him when he got home from Kaiba Corp, it was nearing midnight by then and he was in a foul mood. Another 'emergency' had come up, something that no one else could solve, they claimed. Seto was beginning to think it was more that no one else was willing to put their ass on the line and try to actually _do_ something when they had a problem. It had been a simple enough glitch in the program, just time consuming to deal with, and then he'd had to go back to his office and deal with everything he'd dropped to solve R&D's problem for them.

"What the fuck are you doing here?" Unaccustomed vulgarity ripped from his lips at the sight of Sil-_Bakura_ lying curled and sleeping on the rug by his bed. He'd have been less surprised if it had been Silver; he knew that version of Bakura better and Silver was far more trusting. The spirit woke up swiftly, but without making any sudden movements that might betray his position, and Seto knew he was seeing a behaviour learned early when he lived in constant fear of his life. Seto had a few similar behaviour patterns, but not quite as extreme he mused as he watched Bakura assess his surroundings and decide whether it was safer to 'wake up' or to pretend to still be asleep. He stretched ostentatiously as he sat up to answer Seto's question.

"Yadonushi-sama sent me. We've...he's come up with a way to prevent what happened to you yesterday from happening again." Bakura was acting a bit more submissively than he usually would unless he was merged with Silver, but his collar was _always_ showing when he was merged with Silver, wasn't it? Still, he only used the term 'Yadonushi-sama' with the respect Seto could hear in his voice when he was merged with Silver, otherwise it always sounded either mocking or affectionate.

"Tell me about it." He wanted to know what this would involve _before_ he agreed. It would probably have something to do with his Shadow Magic, and he didn't really care about that, but he needed to understand it, at least as well as he could. Still, if it would keep what had happened last night from happening again...Mokuba had been worried that he'd come home so much earlier than he'd expected, even though he'd been mostly recovered from the effects of what Wraith had done by then. He'd still had a headache, and Mokuba tended to pay almost obsessive attention to him ever since he'd first lost to Yami, so he hadn't been able to hide his headache from his brother the way he'd hidden it from Ryou and Bakura. Seto began undressing as Bakura sat up and started to speak, without even thinking about it, he only realised what he was doing as Bakura stumbled over the first part of his explanation.

"First you need to understand the way Yadonushi-sama set things up so he could use your Shadow Magic. He...I'm not sure what analogy'd work best...ummm, bear with me...ahh!" Then he seemed to recover and collect his thoughts. "Right. Computing would be the best analogy. I'm not very good with those things, but you can make a program either through software, coding, or by hardwiring it into the computer, right?"

"That's true." But Seto didn't see what that had to do with the problems they'd had before, still, a slight bit of explanation might help Bakura settle down a bit as he put his pyjamas on. "Software is far more flexible and powerful of course, but more vulnerable to tampering. Hardwired coding limits a program to what it was originally designed for, any modification is almost impossible, but it requires physical access and so is much more secure."

"Right, well the problem was Yadonushi-sama coded it into you for your Shadow Magic to flow in certain ways from your reserves when he draws on it, but when he isn't actively drawing on it your Shadow Magic goes back to flowing in other ways, the way it has to for you to be able to use it." Bakura shook his head then, obviously rethinking. "Perhaps a better analogy would be a river, the way your Shadow Magic is normally channelled for your use is the natural watercourse, the way it's channelled for Yadonushi-sama to use is like a diversion that's been dug without any sort of retaining walls and such.

"Either way, after Yadonushi-sama used our Shadow Magic to bind Marik from saying anything about what he saw it started to return to flowing in its normal channels. Normally there's enough time between his separate uses of Shadow Magic for our Shadow Magic to return to flowing purely in the natural channels, that or he doesn't release his grasp on our Shadow Magic, so it stays channelled for his use. For instance Yadonushi-sama used our Shadow Magic to transport us to Velvet Glove then he released his grip on it long enough before he had to deal with Marik for our Shadow Magic to return to normal pathways. And while he was dealing with Marik he drew from our power continuously, so there wasn't any problem there. But then he 'let go' of our Shadow Magic while he was unlocking that cage and helping us up. As a result our Shadow Magic had started to return to flowing in the natural channels, and it was suddenly wrenched back to the channels created to make it available for Yadonushi-sama's use. That did the equivalent of 'flood damage' to our minds, luckily it was only a minor flood, and we recovered without needing intervention." Bakura's explanation made a degree of sense, and he'd been careful in his analogies, even if Seto knew they couldn't be exact. Ryou and Bakura'd probably put a lot of thought into their proposed solution, Seto would have preferred to hear it with all their reasoning, but he knew he didn't have the background to understand this, and it was a totally foreign discipline to him. Meaning he'd be in the position of a computer programmer trying to understand how a doctor intend to solve a rare problem in neurochemistry. And he really didn't _need_ to understand it, only to be confident that Ryou and Bakura were both competent in working with Shadow Magic, which he was, especially after seeing how easily Ryou dealt with Marik.

"So, what's the solution? And what are the risks involved?" He had to know the risks before he could make an informed decision. If they only related to his Shadow Magic...well, he didn't use it, so he could live without it, but if there were other risks...

"Basically hardwiring your mind so that Shadow Magic can only flow in two ways, either for your use, or when he needs it, for Yadonushi-sama's. Or, to use the water metaphor, building two canals, reinforced with concrete, one following the natural path and one following the path required so that Yadonushi-sama can use your Shadow Magic. But Yadonushi-sama will have control of how your Shadow Magic flows, either for his use, or for yours. We think we can set it up so that it fails to your use, that is, if Yadonushi-sama cannot control the switching your Shadow Magic, and mine, reverts to the flow pattern we can use, but we might be wrong."

"So, worst case, I lose all ability to use Shadow Magic? It won't hurt me like yesterday, or damage my intelligence?"

"No, neither of those things will happen. And possibly we can set up another way to...basically remove the effects of this alteration, but that will have to come later. We just don't know how to do that at the moment."

"I don't care about being able to use my Shadow Magic, unless you think it will affect my ability to manage Kaiba Corp?"

"No, it won't do that." Bakura laughed gently. "But it might reduce your ability to duel. However it _won't_ affect your brains, or your ability to invent things." And the latter two were more important than his ability to duel now. Immediately after Gozaburo 'committed suicide' when Kaiba Corp had been changing from a weapons manufacturer into a games company he'd had to be the best duellist in the world because that was the only thing they had that made them stand out from other companies. But now they had a near monopoly on all the top duelling equipment, and other unique games and he didn't need to act as a living advertisement anymore. If he lost his ability to duel then it wouldn't matter now. Besides, he wasn't the best duellist in the world anymore, he was third or fourth ranked, behind Yugi and Yami, and sometimes behind Jounouchi since he didn't have time to duel as much as he used to.

"So when can we do this, implement your solution?"

"The next time you come to visit. Yadonushi-sama possesses the skill to draw on another's Shadow Magic safely, and rewire the mental pathways permanently, I do not. Nor does the Pharaoh in fact." Seto hadn't expected that, he thought of Yami as the master of all this Shadow Magic, and to learn that he wasn't...

"Is he waiting for you to get back?" It was a bit late now for Bakura to get home without risking himself, and something about his behaviour made Seto think he was vulnerable tonight, and he'd be waking Ryou when he got back, when Ryou had to tutor Malik tomorrow. "If he isn't you can stay here for the night."

"In your bed?" The way Bakura tilted his head made Seto all too aware that he'd shifted to kneel beside his bed, something he only did when he was Silver, or at least merged with Silver.

"If you want. Is this a new aspect or something?" Seto got into bed as he finished speaking, glancing away from Bakura to let him know he didn't have to answer.

"I didn't expect you to notice. It's a new merging. My normal behaviour works out about half and half Touzokuou and my core self. With Ryou and you it's about two thirds Silver, one third my core self, and this is...oh a quarter Silver, three quarters my core self." Bakura climbed into bed with Seto, shocking the teen by snuggling up against him. He'd expected Bakura to be as non-tactile as he was.

-o-()-o-

Bakura's eyes snapped open when the almost inaudible sound of the door to Seto's bedroom opening. He tensed, ready to protect his lover if Seto needed it, but it was only the brat, Seto's brother...Mokuba wasn't it? So he reluctantly let go of Seto, easy enough since _he_ didn't seem to want to hold on to Bakura the way Bakura was holding him, and half sat up to look at the boy over his lover's body.

"Hush. Let him sleep a bit longer, please." Before he spoke, or Mokuba had the chance to Bakura wove a Shadow Magic spell to keep the sound of his voice from Seto's ears. He didn't even think about merging with Touzokuou, instead letting the boy see his core self unadulterated.

"Niisama doesn't sleep enough. You're one of his boyfriends aren't you? Which one?" He had to ask? Bakura realised that his hair was falling to cover his scar. But he hadn't thought that the scar was the only difference between him and Ryou.

"Bakura." He carefully climbed out of the bed, and walked around it to meet Mokuba. He'd slept in his clothes, and he'd chosen clothes that would be comfortable enough to sleep in deliberately, black velvet pants and a black velvet tunic, reminiscent of what he wore when he visited the clubs with Lord Wraith. "If you want to talk with me I'd prefer it was somewhere else, so I can drop the spell keeping Seto from hearing us. I'd feel more comfortable knowing he was aware of his surroundings, or that I wasn't distracted."

"Do you really think he's in danger? We've got security you know." But he still led me out of the room and down the corridor.

"I managed to get past it easily enough last night." His head snapped around so he could stare at me and he came to a halt at that.

"You mean you didn't come in with Niisama? What time did he get in last night?"

"Almost midnight." It was Sunday anyway, so...but he was a workaholic after all, obsessed with securing a future for his brother where Mokuba never had to grow up as fast as he had, or want for anything. "I think it might have been one by the time we got to sleep." And it was only about six now, Mokuba had to be used to getting up at this time, so even without an alarm he woke up anyway. Bakura glanced back towards Seto's bedroom, then nodded at Mokuba to keep moving.

"Were you fucking then?" Bakura flushed, and refused to answer, until Mokuba began to start moving again. He was half surprised that Mokuba'd picked up on that, but it figured that the kid'd be perceptive in non-verbal communication, even if Bakura wasn't his adored 'niisama'.

"No. There was something I needed to tell him, he needed the warning before the next time he came to see us. You don't need to know that much about your brother's sex life."

"No, I just need to know you aren't hurting him. Niisama might have got rid of those assassins' addresses, but I've still got them. and if you two break his heart..." He let the threat trail off as they reached the kitchen.

"Do you think we could?" Bakura was surprised at what Mokuba had implied. Seto didn't love them, it was just sex, and perhaps a degree of friendship and trust. He glanced at the boy as he began getting some bacon and eggs out, checking to see what Mokuba was going to eat...one of those sugary breakfast cereals he noted absently.

"Niisama trusts you two. He doesn't do that, not easily."

"I trust him too." Even if that trust had started from necessity, and been reinforced by Shadow Magic compulsions Bakura had to trust Seto by now, or he wouldn't be willing to show his core self to Mokuba, who hadn't earned that trust by anything but being someone _Seto_ trusted. "But it won't damage that trust if we stop having sex." Sex was just the ultimate expression of that trust for Bakura, and probably for Seto as well, even if he'd decided to trust them that way, before they did anything. But it wasn't the same for Ryou, it wasn't as much an expression of trust, Bakura was sure of that. It was more a token of affection for him, affection, and a sign of protection for them when Ryou was acting like Wraith. -Yadonushi-sama, Mokuba is asking me questions, about our relationship with Seto. How much should I tell him?-

:As much as you want Bakura. As much as you think he can handle. Have you told Seto about what I promised you? That I won't expect you to dominate him at all, and that I'll just dominate both of you myself:

-Tell him? I...you...didn't give me permission or instructions to convey that message. Your orders were clear.- And Bakura could quote them verbatim. -"Tell Seto about my plan to make sure I don't damage the channels for your Shadow Magic when I draw on it in circumstances like last night. Use whatever terminology you think he'll understand best." You said nothing about informing him of a change in our relationship.- That was Ryou's right and duty, or Wraith's, not his. He turned the bacon in the frying pan mechanically, focused on his link with his master...even when he wasn't merged with Silver at all Ryou was his master and Bakura'd finally got comfortable enough with that fact to admit it, even if only to himself.

:I didn't think I'd need to. But if you want I'm happy to tell him myself.: Ryou wanted _Bakura_ to decide who told Seto about the change in their relationship?

-I...it is your choice, but if you wish me to give Bro-Seto that information you must order me to do so.-

:Never mind.: Ryou broke off their connection, leaving a feeling of disappointment behind. Bakura wished he hadn't disappointed Ryou, but he couldn't _lie_ to him. He forced himself to push that away and turned his attention to Mokuba.

"What would you have done if it had just been Seto in bed this morning?" At least Mokuba had focused on his breakfast while Bakura was cooking his own, that or he knew enough not to interrupt when someone was cooking. "Would you have woken him up?"

"No! I'd have got into bed with him, until he woke up by himself." And that _would_ wake Seto up, but if Mokuba didn't realise that... "Unless he was having a nightmare like he had after Yami beat him the first time."

"From whatever torture method he decided to use in his 'Penalty Game'. Everyone forgets about the things _he's_ done to people for the most trivial of reasons sometimes..."

"But never about what the rest of us have done, unless Yugi decides it doesn't matter anymore." Mokuba sounded unhappy about that, and Bakura made a vaguely encouraging noise in his throat. "No one remembers that I wanted to cut Yugi's finger off if I won when I challenged him to the first game of Capsule Monster Chess, or that I meant for him to die before Niisama had the chance to force him through Death-T. But everyone remembers that he tore up the last Blue Eyes White Dragon and tried to kill Yugi, and they don't understand what he did for me."

"He made himself the sacrifice to buy you a better life, right?" That seemed obvious, but perhaps _too_ obvious?

"Not just a better life. A life at all. I'm not as brilliant as he is, but I'm still smart." And he'd grown up too quickly as well, it was obvious, although he'd retained more of his childhood than Seto had. "He could have been adopted at any time, if he hadn't insisted that I came with him. I was born with a damaged heart, there was no way I'd live to be an adult unless I got operations, and time was running out when he challenged Gozaburo. No one wanted to take on a damaged kid, not and have to pay for the operations, even if it would give them a genius in the bargain." There was just a hint of bitterness in his voice, but it wasn't something Yugi or his friends would notice.

There wasn't really anything Bakura could say about that, and he took his plate to the sink in an effort to break away from the conversation gracefully. Then there was another distraction as Seto came into the kitchen.

"I hadn't expected to wake up alone." Bakura wasn't sure if that was directed at him or Mokuba, so he let the kid deal with it.

"Your boyfriend asked me to let you sleep." There was the merest hint of a childish whine in Mokuba's voice, something that had to have been put there for Seto's benefit.

"You needed the rest. And you didn't seem to like it that I held you as we slept. If you'd wanted company you'd have held on better." He didn't really need to defend himself, even if Lord Wraith wasn't going to insist that Silver dominate Bronze anymore _Bakura_ didn't submit to Seto, he barely submitted to Ryou. But it was amusing, to see how he reacted to the banter, to see how both the Kaibas reacted. It was good; Mokuba looked almost on the verge of pouting at his brother, and Seto was smiling at the two of them - for _him_ that was the equivalent of full out laughter.

"Playing the housewife are you, Bakura?" That was a good way to tease him back, and Bakura grinned at his lover wolfishly.

"What do you think?"

"I think you should cook me some of that bacon and eggs I woke up smelling." Bakura laughed at that, but he did owe Seto something for eating his food. It was easy enough to start the bacon he'd asked for, and it was something he did for Ryou more than people'd expect.

"How do you want them?" His capitulation had both brothers gaping at him for a moment, and he decided it was worth the small blow to his pride to catch them off-guard like that.

-o-()-o-

Ryou frowned at the sight of Yami duelling with Marik while he and Yugi tried to get Malik up to speed to join them at school at the beginning of the next school year. The Egyptian had wanted to avoid drawing too much attention to himself by joining at the beginning at the year, and he'd asked Yugi to help him get up to the same level as him. And Yugi'd asked _Ryou_ to help him teach Malik, while Yami distracted Marik. None of the spirits had shown any interest in going to school with them, and Ryou wasn't entirely sure he approved. It didn't matter for Bakura, since Ryou had a huge trust fund anyway, a trust fund that had been surreptitiously increased with the profits from Bakura's thefts, and Yami'd turned professional duellist, but Ryou had no idea how Marik would support himself, or if he relied on Malik and his family. He knew that the spirit wasn't going to have any chance to say anything about what had happened last night, but he still resented him for cutting his fun short, even if it had resulted in Ryou learning more about his lover.

"I'm sorry Ryou. You need to explain this again for me. I just don't understand it." It didn't help that Malik could barely read anything but hieroglyphics, more specifically the hieroglyphics used five thousand years ago. Or mostly the ones used five thousand years ago anyway, there had been some linguistic drift. He could speak Japanese fine, aside from a slight accent, but he found it hard to read kanji, not surprising really, since he'd only started learning Japanese to be able to steal more rare cards.

"Would it help if you had more notes written in hieroglyphics instead of kanji?" Ryou wasn't sure whether to be impressed, or disturbed by Malik's insistence on working in kanji and hiragana when he found them so hard to read.

"I'd be able to learn better, I think, but you and Yugi wouldn't be able to read my work, and that would keep you from checking over it for me. And besides my teachers will require me to work in Japanese, won't they?" Where'd Malik gotten the idea that Yugi and he wouldn't be able to read hieroglyphs? There was only one person who could have given him that idea.

"You mean you can't share your yami's knowledge of languages Yu-oh, of course, you wouldn't. Your other self can't remember anything from when he lived, let alone something as complex as how to read hieroglyphs. Malik, I know how to read hieroglyphs every bit as well as Bakura-sama can, and he had a lot more education than you'd expect a 'peasant' to have." Ryou reached through their link, checking that he did have access to his lover's knowledge of how to read hieroglyphics. "It might help a bit that my father's an Egyptologist, he taught me a bit even before I had Bakura, made it a game." One of the few things he ever did with Ryou.

"Thank you for the offer, but I'd rather keep on working in kanji, that way I improve my skills with that at the same time. Don't you think that would be best?"

"I suppose so, but I thought it might help."

"Ryou, if Bakura knows about his past, could he tell Yami about _his_ history?"

"He could, but he _won't_." Ryou made the declaration with all the confidence he made decisions for Silver, only then realising what he'd done. :Bakura-sama, Yugi's only just figure out that you could tell Yami about his past. I've informed him that while you could, you won't. Is that a problem: Then he turned his attention to the smaller teen, letting scorn fill his voice as he expanded on his statement. "Why should he bother giving anything to someone who makes it very clear that he despises him, and is hypocrite enough to ignore his own failings even as he condemns Bakura-sama for doing _precisely_ the same thing?" He paused, and smiled Wraith's cruel smile before continuing. "Not that anyone cared to call him on his wrongdoings or shortcomings, preferring to adore him as you all do."

Yugi _flinched_ at that, too shocked to say anything for a moment and Bakura responded to Ryou's question then.

-Of course not Yadonushi-sama, why would it be?- There was an air of confusion in Bakura's answer, it wasn't just that he trusted Ryou to know his oft-expressed opinion on that subject, but what else was it?

"We don't...Yami isn't..."

"You do, all of you ignore his failings and forget about the evil things he did, but never about anyone else's errors - unless you decide they're your friend, then you pretend they've never done anything wrong." Ryou shook his head angrily. "Forget about it. You won't believe the truth, you'd rather live in your world of self-deception. Let's just focus on getting Malik up to speed. Where were we Malik?"

Malik seemed hesitant, looking from Ryou to Yugi for a moment, before he pointed to the physics question he was getting stuck on. Yugi looked offended enough that he went off to join his precious Yami, looking over his shoulders to see how he was doing without interfering in the duel.

"You're right, they do pretend that anyone Yugi likes has never done anything wrong, but they remember the things the people he doesn't like have done forever." Malik's voice was quiet, and Ryou quickly cast the Shadow Magic spell he should have used the night before last, when confronting 'Aku' at Velvet Glove.

"You don't need to whisper, I've just cast a spell to make sure they don't overhear what we're speaking about. You'd rather not risk losing Yugi's friendship because of what you're going to say I take it?"

"_You_ can do that?" Ryou thought that Malik's disbelief was more because he was claiming that skill, rather than because of the spell itself.

"I'm better with applications of Shadow Magic that require precise control than at things that are all raw power. And this falls into the first category."

"Oh. Not much good in a fight then, your Shadow Magic?" Ryou wasn't sure how to answer that, it would be a lie to agree, but he didn't really want to explain _how_ he could use his Shadow Magic in combat. Luckily he didn't have to, Malik continued speaking, and Ryou had the feeling he was approaching the subject he'd wanted to speak about. "After I created Marik by accident he took most of my Shadow Magic. I used to have more power than _he_ does, but now I've only got about half what he has. It gives him a huge advantage. Isis has a lot of power too, my family always has been powerful in Shadow Magic because of all the controlled breeding we've practised, but her power's almost all tied up with her ability to see the future, it has been ever since she got the Millennium Tauk."

"So, Marik can take advantage of the Shadow Magic he stole from you, and Isis' limited access to her own Shadow Magic to dominate your family?"

"Mostly, yes. But I'm _not_ the victim they all seem to think I am. It was _my_ idea to create a criminal organisation to steal rare cards and use them to gain power. Marik was just there to do the killing and torturing I was too squeamish to do myself."

"In other words you used him, for the most part. And now he's using you and your kin, right? I take it the reason he was created is partly why he's into the BDSM scene, and you aren't?"

"I didn't consciously create him, it was an accident when my father was abusing me, and his first act was to kill the bastard. But I guess that might be it. I don't know and I don't care what he does." That was a bit surprising, especially considering...

"I thought you were involved with Marik. You didn't disagree when Witch made that assumption when we were at The Foxhole. Or is it an open relationship or something?"

"More like fuck buddies. We have sex sometimes, but not often. I couldn't believe he started laughing at being assigned to play sub, he's usually really dominant."

"Well, he's not well-known in the BDSM scene, or he'd have been recognised. Or at least he isn't well-known in the respectable part of the scene."

"Are you sure he'd have been recognised when he was playing sub?"

"Point, still he didn't look different enough from normal for that to be the case. Not unless he normally wears a mask when he's playing. And I doubt that." Ryou didn't bother to explain _why_ he doubted that, and he noted that Malik seemed to accept his words.

"I've never seen him wearing a mask, no. You said the _respectable_ part of the scene. Is it respectable anywhere?"

Ryou would _not_ let Malik see how much he'd just insulted him, however inadvertently. To calm himself before answering he tapped into his link with Bakura, sharing his lover's enjoyment of the time he was spending with their other lover and his little brother.

"Yes. It is. It might not be the sort of thing you or society at large considers normal, but the larger part of the scene is acceptable. In the respectable part of the scene it is in truth the submissive partner who has the true power, as a proper dom will not go beyond the limits set, and there is a safeword to keep the top from going too far. In fact there is a set of widely used safewords that are often required to be used as standard in some clubs. That makes it easier for the monitors to make sure nothing goes wrong. The other side is slavery, literally, and serious abuse. Marik might be part of that circle, Kitsune bans anyone he knows to travel in those circles regularly from his club."

"Oh. I didn't realise that." Ryou shrugged and took his spell down, things seemed to have moved past the point of requiring privacy.

"You didn't have any reason to. Yugi, I thought you were supposed to be helping Malik as well?"

-o-()-o-


	4. Chapter 4

Bakura could feel Seto approaching the house, like an itch between his shoulders where he couldn't quite scratch it. He sometimes wondered if it felt as irritating to Ryou to sense someone approaching, but he supposed it couldn't, or his lover would have changed the spells. He'd admitted enough about how he'd changed to Ryou that he felt comfortable asking him about which aspect would be the better for doing this.

"Yadonushi-sama, would you find this easier to do if I was Silver, or merged with Silver?"

"Wha-? Umm...no. I assumed you'd be _you_, normal you when we did this. That's one reason I wanted to do you first, not him. Seto just doesn't have your awareness of his personal power flows, and I'm not sure you'd have the same awareness merged with Silver." Bakura hadn't even considered those aspects of the spells needed to do this, but then he'd never thought it was his responsibility to think about them, just to supply the power his lover needed and not fight what Ryou did.

"Ahh, do you think Seto will be disappointed that I'm here instead of Silver?" He still hadn't spent much time dealing with Seto as a lover as himself rather than as Silver, even with Saturday night taken into consideration. And he wasn't entirely sure he wanted to bond that deeply to Seto, although it might be a little late to avoid that since he'd reacted to protect Seto without thinking when Mokuba came into his bedroom on Sunday morning while Seto was still asleep.

"I don't think so. You didn't have any problems when you delivered the message to him did you? And if you want to you can always become Silver _after_ I've finished rewiring your mind." It was phrased as a suggestion, not an order, but somehow Bakura had a feeling it was more an order, even if Yadonushi-sama wasn't going to say so explicitly. But he didn't have time to say anything else, because they could hear Seto at the door. "I'll get that Bakura, you just relax." And Ryou pressed a quick kiss to his lips, leaving Bakura wishing they had time for something else, or that he dared give himself over to his lover without reverting to Silver.

He was still just sitting there, with his fingers pressed to his lips in contemplation when Seto followed Ryou in, a distant expression on his face.

"How are we going to do this? And what do you need from me?" It shouldn't have been a surprise that Seto was so blunt, but it had been a bit surprising that he hadn't demanded more details than Bakura had been prepared to give, and less metaphor.

"You can help me move a couple of futons in here, and take that coat off, it doesn't look too comfortable to me." That hadn't really been a concern when Seto was here to play since Ryou got him naked rather quickly, but it did matter this time since Seto was always subtly uncomfortable like that, even if it did arouse him too.

"It's more comfortable than it looks, but you're right, I wouldn't lie down in it. Why do we need to lie down?" Seto slid his coat from his shoulders as he spoke, and Ryou took it from him without saying anything.

"Because it can make me dizzy sometimes when Ryou draws heavily on my Shadow Magic for any sustained period of time, and we're pretty sure that I'll be able to feel it when Ryou starts manipulating my Shadow Magic flows. In other words it's a bit like the reason a doctor has his patients lie down before giving them a sedative, or taking blood donations."

"That makes sense." Seto frowned a bit as Bakura led him through the house. "I take it you're both assuming I'll react the same way you do to those things?"

"The first part is more or less a physiological reaction, or close enough that we're certain you'll respond the same. But as to how you'll react when Ryou starts working on your Shadow Magic flows..." Bakura shrugged, uncertain about how to phrase it without risking insulting his lover, then he decided not to worry about that. "We're not sure if you're aware enough of your Shadow Magic to be affected by the alterations Ryou will be making to it, but it is better to take unneeded precautions than to fail to take precautions and find they were needed."

"Yes, it is. It is good to deal with someone who understands that." Seto's approval didn't mean as much to Bakura as Ryou's would have, but it was still nice, and Bakura didn't fail to note the implication that a lot of the people Seto knew, either through duelling or through his company didn't understand that simple fact. Then an ideal distraction to keep him from dwelling on the inadequacies of the people he had to work with came to hand.

"We keep the spare futons in this cupboard, in case we have more guests than beds." Because both Ryou and Bakura preferred sleeping in a bed to on a futon - Ryou because his family was pretty Westernised, and Bakura because it felt like success, because it was so different to the pile of rags he'd usually used for a bed back in Egypt.

"Do we need to get sheets and blankets as well?" Bakura smiled faintly, he'd succeeding in switching Seto's attention to a purely practical issue, rather than letting him worry about what Ryou was going to be doing, or dwell on most people's incompetence.

"I don't think so, unless you'd prefer that. We're not going to be sleeping on the futons after all, just lying on them while Ryou modifies our Shadow Magic flows."

"No need then." Seto pulled two of the rolled up futons out of the cupboard, handing the first over to Bakura and taking the second himself. It was a little bit awkward to carry one each, but not too difficult, and they were too different in height for it to be comfortable for them to carry the futons between them. Bakura led Seto back to the room they usually played in, he wasn't certain that it was a good idea to let Ryou alter their minds there, in case it made it harder for Seto to relax, but as Ryou had pointed out it would reinforce the need for Seto to comply with what Ryou had to do. They set the futons up side by side without needing to discuss their actions, a sign of how well they could work together Bakura thought.

"I wish you knew enough about the modern world to actually work for me." Seto sounded wistful, and Bakura resisted the urge to explain that he was _very_ good with computers, because knowing about them was necessary to steal anything really valuable in this time. Ryou didn't _want_ him to have a job, it made his lover happier to have Bakura at home, ready to spend time with him whenever Ryou felt the need to. Ryou hadn't actually said any of that out loud, just expressed his relief that the additions Bakura'd made to his trust fund allowed him that luxury, the rest he'd gathered through their link.

"About the only thing I'd be good for is a few tests of your security system, I don't have the reputation as a duellist to be worth sponsoring or anything." It was just a throw away comment, Bakura hadn't really meant anything by it, but Seto still latched onto what he'd said with almost desperation.

"I might just do that then, a lot of my buildings could probably use a test of their security. Expect me to contact you at some point about that." Ryou had got back just in time to hear that, and Bakura resisted the temptation to look to him for how to answer Seto's offer.

"I'll listen to the offer, I can't say for certain that I'll agree. We should get started, since we have no idea how long this will take, or even if Yadonushi-sama will need time to rest between working on the two of us." Seto gave him an impatient look at that, he'd obviously expected better, and Bakura couldn't quite blame him, he was trusting the two of them to alter his mind, and if it had been him with the idea Bakura knew that Seto would be able to answer any question about the process. But then Seto worked far more in the sciences than the arts, even if he _did_ have an artist's soul. "It isn't as if we could do experiments or anything."

"I don't have the sort of power reserves you or Bakura-sama do, the sort we need to do something like this, and it wasn't as if we had anyone we could experiment on." And did Ryou realise that he sounded almost as if it was the lack of suitable subjects that had kept him from experimenting, since almost no one had Shadow Magic any more, rather than the morality of experimenting on people who didn't know enough to give their consent? "Now lie down so we can get started." The order was spoken flatly, with an absolute confidence that he would be obeyed, a confidence Bakura knew he found an incredible turn on, something Seto seemed to agree with him on.

Bakura heard Ryou come to sit beside his head, laying a hand lightly on his forehead, and he obediently dropped his shields as soon as Ryou told him to. He could feel Seto's power in his mind, entwining with his own power, and altering how it flowed, creating new pathways within his brain, and removing old ones, and it _hurt_, but that didn't matter, not when he knew what this was to prevent. He'd take any amount of pain over the prospect of losing himself, his control and awareness the way he sometimes had under Zork.

"Finished. Is there anything you think Seto should know before I do this, Bakura?"

"Yes. This will hurt, it will be nothing short of agonising in fact, and if you struggle against it, try to make it hurt less then it will just be even worse. And there might be damage if you struggle."

-o-()-o-

All Seto was aware of as Ryou used his Shadow Magic to implement the solution he'd come up with on Bakura was a steady drain of _something_ he couldn't quite identify, an odd form of energy that had to be his Shadow Magic. An odd sense of lassitude began to affect him, and he didn't really notice when Ryou _stopped_ draining power from him at first, not until after Ryou began to speak, and even then he couldn't make any sense out of the words at first.

"...anythin...ink Seto should know before I do this, Bakura?"

"Yes. This will hurt, it will be nothing short of agonising in fact, and if you struggle against it, try to make it hurt less then it will just be even worse. And there might be damage if you struggle." Bakura's voice was solemn, and serious, not a hint of melodrama there, and he knew that the thief had a high pain threshold, and knew what real pain was, had been tortured himself in the past, so he wasn't inclined to dismiss Bakura's warning the way he might have if it had been Yami or Yugi warning him. Still, Seto could take the pain, it couldn't be any worse than some of the things Gozaburo had done to him, and he wasn't entirely certain that he wanted to take the risk of something happening again like it had last Saturday, he was scared there might be brain damage or something if it happened too often.

"Then I won't struggle. Don' think I've got th' energy to anyway." Seto hated the slurring in his voice, but somehow he knew he couldn't change it, so there wasn't anything he could do about that, and he knew it was understandable. He knew because Bakura responded to him without seeming to have any problems with what he'd said.

"It's not the physical struggling we need to worry about, it's the chance that you'll try to stop Ryou altering the flows of your Shadow Magic. Just focus on whatever reason you have for doing this if you need any extra motivation."

"Right." So, Mokuba, he needed to focus on Mokuba, and how important it was for him to stay sane, and smart, so he could run Kaiba Corp and make sure that his brother was provided for, and that any children Mokuba had would be able to live their lives without worrying over money the way he had before Gozaburo. "Is there anything else I need to do?"

"No, just shut your eyes and relax." When he'd been warned that this was going to be agonising and he was worried about brain damage? Seto scowled, and did his best to comply, trying to put himself into the state of mind he enjoyed when he was Bronze, focusing on how much he trusted Ryou, and he believed that whatever pain Ryou was going to inflict was for a purpose. He felt Ryou's hand resting on his forehead and braced himself without thinking, but that wasn't enough. It felt like someone had set his brain on fire as Ryou did whatever it was that he was doing, even if he knew that it wasn't supposed to be possible to feel sensation from the brain. But it still felt like there were hands of fire, pulling and twisting at things he couldn't identify, and he screamed, he needed that release if there was nothing else he could have, even if Bakura hadn't.

When the pain finally ended it cut off abruptly, which didn't really make much sense, but his throat was still hurting, and when he tried to speak he realised that he couldn't.

"You screamed yourself hoarse." Bakura was kneeling by him, a lot more coherent than he'd been, offering him a glass of something to drink. He managed to sit up with Bakura's help - and somehow it didn't seem odd to him anymore that _Bakura_ was the one to take care of him, not Ryou - and took the glass in a shaking hand. The drink was hot enough to make the glass warm in his hand and it looked a bit like a milkshake and Seto sipped at it carefully at first, then when he'd tasted the odd spiced honey flavour he drank with more enthusiasm.

"How long did it take?" Even that short sentence made him feel like sandpaper was rubbing over his throat, and Bakura just frowned, biting his lower lip and shrugging.

"I am not sure, I will ask Ryou when he returns." Seto didn't bother trying to ask out loud, he just looked at Bakura. "He's putting the rest of this up into a thermos for you, Yadonushi-sama had to knock you out at first when he'd finished, and I made this up for you while you were out. Did you only have limited time?"

He didn't need to speak in order to answer that question, so he just shook his head. He'd treated this like any normal medical procedure when he planned for it, and since Bakura hadn't given him a time he assumed it was more akin to surgery than to something like a dental exam.

"Then you can stay for a while, until you've recovered a bit." He tilted his head, letting his hair fall forward, as he spoke. "Were you hoping for something else afterwards?" It was only then that Seto realised he hadn't been dealing with Bakura's core self at all, not really, he'd been dealing with the new merging who'd told him about this. He shrugged, it hadn't really mattered to him whether or not they did anything sexual today, this visit had been about practicalities, not pleasure; if there was pleasure afterwards that was just a nice bonus. But really, he was a bit too tired to feel up to anything that required much in the way of effort from him.

"How is he?" Ryou directed the question at Bakura, not at him, and Seto gritted his teeth in irritation.

"Apparently his throat is still hurting, and he had trouble speaking earlier. He wanted to know how long it is since we lay down."

"Nearly three hours. Is it just your throat?" Seto nodded, then frowned as he realised that it wasn't just his throat that hurt, the rest of his body ached too, the way it had when he spent too long training alone, without an opponent.

"No, my muscles ache too, like I spent too long exercising." The drink had helped though, and he hoped he could drink some more soon, Bakura had said they'd made more than the glass he'd drunk.

"I see. Bakura, go get some massage oil and put it in a bowl of warm water to heat up. Seto, I'll help you get undressed, so that Bakura can give you a massage. That should help, he's very good at that." Bakura had already left, obeying Ryou's instructions without question, apparently he considered this to be bedplay, and Seto wasn't sure he could disagree as Ryou came forward and began stripping him with sure, confident hands. By the time he was naked Bakura had returned, setting a softly steaming bowl down beside Seto, and then putting a dark bottle into it to heat. Then Bakura stripped before he touched his throat, and the familiar collar appeared around his neck before he knelt in the posture Seto had learned to use when he first presented himself to Wraith.

Ryou laughed, Wraith's laugh, and stroked Ba-Silver's hair.

"Put those in the laundry basket, clean yourself and return here with a bottle of your oil, the grey butt plugs and a cock ring." Seto knew better than to expect to hear Silver respond to those instructions, and Ry-Wraith turned his attention to Seto when Silver had left. "I don't think you're really up to playing at the moment, are you?" All Seto could do was shake his head, and that made Ryou laugh. "Well, I'll keep you warm until Silver gets back." And with that he lay down on top of Seto, kissing him hungrily, hands roving over his body casually. Somehow Seto didn't care enough to object, and besides he _knew_ Wraith would never abuse his trust, and neither would Ryou.

Just as he'd reached the point of thrusting up against Ryou's hips he heard Silver return, and kneel to present the things Ryou'd told him to get, and Ryou released him, climbing off him with a throaty laugh.

"Roll over onto your stomach Seto." When he'd obeyed he couldn't see what Ryou was doing to Silver, but it didn't matter, he knew Ryou loved him too much to hurt him. Even the slap he heard couldn't have been intended to really hurt Silver, besides he'd felt slaps like that before, and they were always...nice in a way, just hard enough to draw his attention, and not hard enough to do more than make his skin red for a few minutes. "Go and give Seto a full massage. As if he'd just finished a heavy workout." How would that be any different from the massage he'd got after the trouble with Marik in Velvet Glove?

Just as good as that one, if not better, but gentler somehow, and this massage didn't make him feel sleepy, instead it soothed his aches, and aroused him in a way the earlier one hadn't. Silver didn't tell him to roll over verbally, instead pulling at him lightly until he realised what he wanted. Seto had gotten past being embarrassed about showing his arousal around Ryou and Bakura a week or so after he'd proposed their relationship, so he didn't hesitate to comply, rolling over and resting his head on his folded hands. Silver started working on his chest, massaging the front of his body, starting at his neck and moving down, until he reached Seto's groin. Seto could feel that long hair brush over him as Silver turned his head, but he didn't bother twisting to see what was going on.

"Yes, go ahead and satisfy him." Ryou's voice sounded half amused, then Seto couldn't think as he felt Silver's incredibly talented mouth focused on bringing him to climax.

-o-()-o-

Ryou watched half amused and half aroused as Silver tended to Seto, massaging him with the skill Ryou was so familiar with, the skill he hadn't expected his lover to have. When Seto rolled over he could see that the massage had the same effect on Seto as it usually did on him, and he smiled indulgently as Silver reached the groin and turned to look at him in question. He was used enough to how non-verbal Silver was that he didn't have any problems interpreting the look on his face.

"Yes, go ahead and satisfy him." Bronze tended to give a good show when he was being sucked off without the distraction of having to work on Silver at the same time, so it would be fun to see if _Seto_ reacted the same. Ryou expected that he would, that he didn't have the same distinction between the two aspects of his personality that Bakura had, or even that Ryou had himself to a lesser extent. If anything Seto was _less_ inhibited about showing his pleasure now than he was as Bronze, and Ryou enjoyed the sight, letting Silver feel his arousal. Silver finished the massage while Seto was still limp from his climax, and Ryou's time sense told him that it had been nearly an hour since he'd woken up.

"Silver help Seto to get up and dress him." That took about a quarter of an hour, and it was fun to see how Seto kept inadvertently hindering Silver in serving him. "Good, now take Seto to the kitchen and give him the thermos we filled with the rest of the drink you made up for him. Seto, you can drink the thermos in an hour or so. We intend to play now, and I doubt you're interested in that at the moment."

"I'll call my driver." He pulled out his cell phone, as he spoke, his voice was still hoarse, but he didn't seem to have any problem talking as he followed Silver through the house. Ryou smiled almost indulgently, then went to collect some toys to use on Silver. He made a point of picking only toys made of metal for this, to fit in with the plans he'd come up with while watching Silver massage Seto. Except the vibrator, that was plastic since he wouldn't have time to do anything with it before using it. Silver was waiting for him on his knees, presenting himself the way he always did.

"Display pose 2." He didn't need to stretch Silver to take the vibrator, he was already stretched from the butt plug and it was a simple matter to slip the slightly smaller vibrator inside and turn it on. "Go do the laundry, then come to me and present yourself." He didn't need to worry about Silver being able to find him, they could use their link to locate one another easily enough. He'd got most of his homework done while Seto was unconscious, but there was still some more he needed to do, _after_ he'd set things up the way he wanted. Ryou went to the freezer, collecting a large bowl of ice cubes, something he'd made a point of creating a large supply of, stored in plastic zip-lock bags, and setting all the toys he was planning on using into the bowl to cool as the ice melted. He left the bowl in the room they were playing in, then retreated to his office. He focused on maths and physics, until he felt Silver's presence in the room.

"Come here and suck me while I work. But don't let me come." He still had to finish a few last questions on his physics, and having Silver's mouth around him would feel good, it always did. And Silver knew that he only wanted a distraction, not enough stimulation to keep him from concentrating on his work, he always did know what Ryou needed sexually. Ryou just wished he'd been as aware of Silver when he'd made the decision to accept Seto into their relationship on occasion. He put that from his mind, and began to focus on his homework again, writing and calculating as Silver's mouth worked on him. When he'd finished he pushed the book away from him and slid his hand under the table to grip Silver's hair as he began to fuck his mouth in earnest. He knew well enough that he wasn't actually _hurting_ his lover when he did this, so it didn't bother him the way it might have, the way it had the first time Bakura had suggested this as a way to use Silver. When he'd climaxed he released his slave's hair, murmuring an order for Silver to clean him up and Silver obeyed with a contented purr, resting his head against Ryou's thigh when he'd finished. Ryou hesitated then reached down to stroke his beautiful hair gently, even though the reassurance probably wasn't necessary.

He pushed away from the table, fastened his pants up and stood, glancing back at his lover. "Follow me." It wasn't as if there was any question of Silver disobeying as he went back to their play room. "Display pose 3." Silver spread his legs wide, then leaned back until he actually fell backwards, catching himself on the hands he threw over his head, then moving his hands as far apart as he could without losing his balance and arching his back until his body formed the shape of a bow. Ryou sometimes thought that particular display pose was the most beautiful of them all, but only when he wasn't looking at a different pose. He stepped forward, running a hand along Silver's ribcage, then picked up the bowl where he'd been chilling the toys. The nipple clamps first, clover clamps, with a chain strung between them, then a second chain, one end a clasp that he fastened to the middle of the first and the other a new cock ring, added in addition to the one Silver was already wearing. It was just a little too short and would pull on the nipple clamps, increasing the tension, and also on the cock ring, especially with the position Silver was in. Then he turned the vibrator up a bit, Silver would need the extra stimulation with what Ryou intended to do next.

He pulled out a heavy metal ring, a 24 ounce ball stretcher and fastened it around Silver, pulling his testicles away from his body, then he added another smaller ring on either side of that, checking through their link to see how badly he was hurting Silver after each ring. He hit Silver's limit with the third ring, an improvement on last time, and the reason he'd dared start with the 24 ounce ball stretcher rather than the 16 ounce one he'd started with last time.

A smile dance across Ryou's lips for a moment as he knelt between Silver's legs, and took Silver into his mouth for a few moments in an effort to soothe the pain he'd inflicted at least a little. Next he turned off the plastic vibrator and slowly slid it out of Silver, to replace it with a larger metal vibrator he'd had chilling and ran one of the melting ice cubes down the length of Silver's cock. For a while he amused himself by running melting ice cubes over Silver's body almost randomly, but then he decided he'd been playing for long enough and stepped back, watching the fine tremors running through Silver's body in admiration.

"Break stance." Ryou caught Silver as he fell from his position, and guided him to lie down on one of the futons they'd used earlier. Running a casually possessive hand over Silver's body Ryou found that most of the metal toys had heated to his skin temperature by now, so he began slowly removing them, all save the original cock ring and the vibrator working inside him. He stroked Silver's hair gently, then bent to whisper into his ear. "I'll return soon, just relax for now."

It didn't take him long to prepare a hot water bottle and a bowl of warm water to wash his slave down with after he'd finished with him, and Ryou returned to Silver, placing the bowl on a table to wait, along with the hot water bottle wrapped in a towel. He removed the vibrator and pulled Silver to his feet with a hand in his hair before opening his pants, slicking himself with oil and sitting down.

"Come here and sit on my lap facing me." As Silver obeyed Ryou took hold of him by the hip and guided himself into his lover's body. He began guiding Silver to fuck himself on Ryou's cock, and opened their link, to let Silver feel his pleasure, holding back on feeling it himself to help keep from climaxing until his slave had climaxed first. It took a long time, but sometimes Ryou liked that, to climax only after a long wait, because that made it feel even better than usual. Once Silver had climaxed Ryou let himself feel the full sensation and was overwhelmed in seconds, so he didn't take too much time fucking Silver while his slave was too spent to respond. Then Ryou lifted Silver from his lap and stood, carrying him to the futon. He cleaned himself quickly with a baby wipe, and then he picked up the bowl of warm scented water and cloths he intended to use to clean and soothe Silver.

The first thing was to remove the cock ring, and then Ryou began washing his lover, whispering quiet comforting words to him as he worked, following the wet cloth up with the warmed towel. Silver started almost purring under the attention, and Ryou smiled in amusement at that, but he didn't say anything to let Silver know what he was doing, he was enjoying listening to it too much.

"Come on, we'll put the futons away together." He only spoke when he was sure that Silver was fully recovered from the scene, but once he was confident of that he saw no reason to delay the tidy up. After all, once they'd got everything put away they could move on to something more enjoyable.

-o-()-o-


	5. Chapter 5

Seto looked through the sheaf of papers detailing which buildings needed proper security testing, and how much he'd be willing to pay for each test, as well as all the other terms one last time before he called for his limo. They'd made plans to visit a different BDSM club that night, one called The Silver Mask, and he could leave these in Ryou's house for Bakura to look over later. The way Wraith had been treating them since he'd altered their Shadow Magic had changed as well, and Seto could tell that Silver was far more comfortable now that he wasn't expected to play at being dominant to Bronze. He had enjoyed the slight pushing of his limits Wraith had done last time they were at a club, and he wondered if that would be expected of him again, although he _still_ intended to refuse to expose himself in front of anyone.

He didn't think Wraith would ask that of him anyway, not yet, and Seto pushed his questions about tonight's plans aside mentally as he rang the bell at Ryou's door.

"Come in." Ryou didn't bother with any other greeting, and although he looked at the papers in Seto's hand with open curiosity he didn't actually _ask_ him about them.

"I've got some potential jobs for Bakura, one-off tests mostly. Shall I leave these for him to look at later?"

"Please, you can give them to me, and I'll file them away for him to read tomorrow, while you go clean yourself up properly before you meet me in the playroom." Properly meant inside as well, Seto nodded silently, already beginning to submerse himself in the persona of Bronze, and went to get himself clean. He didn't need to wash his hair, not since it would be covered up by a wig, but he made sure to clean himself everywhere, shaving under his arms as well as what little hair grew on his legs as well because Wraith had left the razor prominently in view in silent order.

When he got to their playroom he found Silver kneeling in what he recognised as display pose 1 by now, wearing nothing but jewellery and a black tunic reaching to mid thigh length and Wraith, holding a bronze butt plug, with a kettle resting on the table beside him.

"I've cast a Shadow Magic spell on this so the external temperature won't reach above about 37 degrees Celsius. Will you have any problem with that?" Seto felt a bit surprised that Wraith was bothering to ask, until he remembered that he wasn't actually wearing his wig or collar yet. "Or with wearing the equivalent of what Silver's wearing?"

"I can handle both of those things." He wouldn't be recognisable after all, and as long as he didn't have to _do_ anything in front of an audience, except perhaps let Wraith give him wine, or do the same for Silver...

"Good, and if I ask you'll be willing to give me a blow job, or a hand job, right? No matter what the circumstances around us are."

"As long as you don't ask me to get undressed I can accept that."

"Agreed. Now put your wig and collar on and become Bronze." _That_ was an interesting, and not a little disturbing insight into how Ryou thought; it hadn't needed a change of clothes to make Seto think of Ryou as Wraith, and he sometimes found himself thinking of Bakura as Silver even when his collar was hidden. But at least it was a sort of safety valve for him, as soon as he removed his wig and collar Ryou would treat him as Kaiba Seto, CEO of Kaiba Corp, and his friend, not as Bronze, Lord Wraith's less then perfectly trained sub. He picked the wig and collar up from the small table they were resting on, fastening the collar around his neck before fitting the wig over his hair and kneeling to present himself to his Master.

"Watch me." Bronze sat back on his heels, looking up as Lord Wraith unscrewed the base of the bronze butt plug and poured boiling water from the kettle inside it. "Now, on your hands and knees." Bronze wasn't good enough to get into any of the display poses, not properly at any rate, although he'd gained flexibility and stamina since he'd started on the daily yoga and tai chi routines Bakura had suggested for him. He settled onto the floor, legs slightly spread to give Wraith better access and shivered as he felt his Master's fingers inside him, preparing him. Then he felt the warm metal of the plug nudging at his entrance, pressing inside him, stretching him more, not as much as Wraith's cock did, but enough to make him moan in pleasure as his cock hardened.

Then, once the butt plug was fully seating inside him Wraith reached around and fastened a bronze studded leather cock-ring at the base of his cock, keeping him from climaxing, or softening. Wraith-sama slapped him on the ass then, laughing. "Get up." He nodded towards the other door. "There's clothes and everything else you need through there. Get ready to go."

That didn't require a response, Bronze simply stood and obeyed, walking through the door to find a tunic almost identical to Silver's and jewellery in bronze - bracelets, anklets and a waist chain as well as the familiar bronze nail polish and red lipstick, with mascara this time. He dressed quickly, adding the jewellery with equal speed and only slowed down to use the mascara and nail polish because he had to. Then, once the polish was dry he turned and walked back into the playroom, kneeling to greet Lord Wraith, catching a glimpse of the way he was brushing Silver's hair before pressing his face to the floor.

"Stand." Wraith-sama was standing as well, depositing Silver onto his feet as he did so, and he took hold of Bronze's arm as well, then Bronze felt the chill of the Shadow Realm forming around them. Again they appeared in a changing room, and this time Bronze assumed that Wraith-sama had arranged payment for their visit earlier, although Wraith didn't say so. The 'mainstream' part of the club looked almost normal, if you ignored the way many patrons were dressed and the body language most displayed, but the employees were all wearing silver coloured masks of one sort or another.

This time it was Bronze assigned to carry the tray with their drinks, but he couldn't do what Silver had, couldn't kneel to present the tray to their Master, holding it above his head perfectly stable. Instead he just stood holding the tray until Wraith-sama moved the drinks to the table he'd selected and taken the tray from him, then he knelt at his master's feet mirroring Silver. It was a bit uncomfortable to kneel there, his heels pressing the butt plug deeper inside him, but he _did_ have practice in this at least, so he made a point of trying to keep anyone from guessing that he was filled.

Wraith-sama lightly touched Bronze's shoulder, then patted his lap and he obediently climbed up to sit on his Master's knees, curling himself so his head was below Lord Wraith's. He shut his eyes, waiting for more instructions, verbal or otherwise, but he knew that he wasn't expected to keep his eyes open when he was in Lord Wraith's lap, and it was easier than trying to keep his gaze cast appropriately down. And he didn't certainly _need_ his eyes open to drink the wine Wraith-sama passed into his mouth from his own.

"Well done, I think this makes for a better show than if you had your eyes open, Bronze." No answer was required, so Bronze just licked at his Master's lower lip when he felt his face approaching with the next mouthful of wine, something he'd read was a submissive gesture in wolves. When Wraith drew back he laughed, sounding almost pleased.

"I never instructed you to do that. Get back on the floor and hold your hands out palm up at chest height." Wraith-sama had insisted that they needed to plan at least one punishment he could use on Bronze if it turned out to be necessary when they visited the clubs, and while he was willing to indulge Bronze's problems he would _not_ tolerate disobedience or insolence. Bronze watched from beneath lowered lashes as Wraith-sama removed the leather wristband he wore, and folded it over carefully holding both ends together, and then bringing it down swiftly twice on each of his open palms. He hadn't expected it to hurt quite that much, and he gave a quiet, half-strangled yelp with the first blow, but then he managed to keep quiet for the other three, and he watched with a sense of mild jealousy as Wraith-sama immediately lost interest in him, pulling Silver up into his lap instead. Bronze folded his hands into his lap and just waited for his Master to decide to return his attention to him, watching Lord Wraith from beneath lowered lashes the way he'd learned to, something distinctly different from the way he'd needed to watch Gozaburo. He was touching Silver far more freely and intimately than he'd touched Bronze, and he repressed his jealousy, knowing that Wraith-sama's discretion with him had been because of the rules _he'd_ insisted on, and his discomfort with anything even vaguely public.

Then Wraith gently lifted Silver from his lap, setting him on his feet and handing the empty wine glass to him.

"Take this back to the bar." Once Silver had left Wraith-sama gave two signals with his left hand, telling Bronze to give him a blow job, and to make it slow, and teasing. He immediately moved to kneel between Lord Wraith's open legs and unfastened his pants, using his teeth and tongue rather than his hand, and took his Master into his mouth, moving slowly and carefully, to bring him to and maintain his arousal, without actually bringing him to climax.

-o-()-o-

Ryou hadn't invented an excuse to punish Bronze, but he was pleased that his sub had _given_ him one; his sensual talents always seemed to improve just after he'd been punished for something. That very submissive licking at his lower lip had been _very_ arousing, but it wasn't something he'd known about ahead of time, or instructed Bronze to do, and so, even if he _did_ decide to require that, he had to punish him for taking that initiative.

And now he let his hands cup the back of Bronze's head allowing him to display the skills Silver had taught him. There wouldn't be any point in controlling him with a grip in his hair for this, not considering that he'd ordered Bronze to make it slow and teasing - instead he planned to keep Bronze doing this for a while, at least quarter of an hour, or more likely half an hour. Silver returned and took up his position at Ryou's side, and once he had his slave where he could touch him Ryou shut his eyes and let himself focus on the feeling of what Bronze was doing for him. And he reached out to brush against Silver's mind lightly, enjoying the simplicity in his slave's thoughts, a simplicity he was ashamed of never really noticing before. It was so different from Bakura's normal thought patterns that he should have recognised that there was some sort of dissociation without needing to be told. The only excuse a Master could have had for _not_ noticing was an inability to directly sense his slave's mental state, and Ryou couldn't hide behind that, since he _was_ telepathic with Silver, even if he wasn't with Bronze.

The Silver Mask was like Velvet Glove in that it didn't have 'official' floor shows, like the ones on the stages in The Foxhole, or in the pits in some other clubs, but they didn't expect patrons to hide away when they were playing either. So Ryou found that he'd attracted an audience as he helped his slave and sub to drink, and punished Bronze for his impudence, not that he minded being watched, and they started dispersing when it was obvious he wasn't going to do anything else worth watching.

But one domme did sit down beside him, her sub kneeling at her feet. "Hello, I'm Raven. Might I ask your name?"

"I'm known as Wraith."

"Lord Wraith! What are you doing somewhere so tame?" Ryou couldn't help but laugh at her shock, or the way she forgot to control her sub and the other woman looked up at him directly in shock.

"I recently acquired a sub, in addition to my slave, and I'm introducing him to the scene gradually."

"Oh, is that the one kneeling between your legs? I admit I don't understand why you'd bother with a sub when you've already got a slave, isn't there a risk of that causing jealousy?"

"I _did_ make sure my Silver wouldn't be upset before I agreed to take Bronze on. Yes, I know that theoretically I could take another sub or slave without consulting him, but why risk having my two precious metals fighting all the time instead of focused on my pleasure?"

"Some masters find it amusing to watch their slaves fighting. I don't, and truthfully I'm happy just keeping my Dove here, without bothering with any more slaves. Are you mainly bringing Bronze to the clubs where an unclaimed sub will still be safe, or will you be trying some of the clubs where a sub can't go about without someone claiming them?"

"Both, I'll make sure he knows the difference of course, but I don't intend to restrict myself once I've got him used to the scene." Ryou took a sip of his absinthe while Raven replied.

"I'm a bit surprised that someone with your reputation would bother with an untrained sub so new to the scene Wraith."

"I know him outside of the scene, and when he figured out he was interested in this sort of thing he asked me." Ryou shrugged and changed the subject, asking how Raven liked to display her Dove. It was an interesting conversation, and while he was talking he let Silver lick the wine from the second glass off his fingers. He only realised how long he'd been chatting when he glanced at the glass, and realised it was almost a quarter empty, he'd let Bronze work on him far longer than planned, his sub's jaw had to be killing him by now.

All it took was laying his hand on the back of Bronze's head, fingertips resting at the base of his skull, and the sub froze, mouth open, and Ryou knew he was relaxing his throat muscles so he wouldn't be hurt as Ryou thrust in, deep and fast, climaxing quickly. Then he fastened his pants and pulled Bronze up into his lap, taking a quick drink of his absinthe, before beginning to feed some wine to Bronze with a kiss, letting him know he was forgiven. He noticed that Raven was watching him with a wistful look on her face, and then she handed some money to Dove, telling her what to go and buy.

"You ever go to any of the places you can't send your sub off to get things for you?" Ryou didn't, not anymore, he had once or twice, but it wasn't worth it, he couldn't bring himself to relax in those places. And it was in one of the places like that he'd got his invite to the bottom feeder club.

"No. My Dove is precious to me, and since you name your property for precious metals I'd think you feel the same way."

"Oh, I do. But I did visit a couple of those clubs to see what they were like...not worth the trouble." He shrugged. "I'd heard of them, and I was curious, but I always felt on edge, as if everyone there wanted to steal my Silver from me. And were perfectly willing to act on it." Of course if anyone _had_ managed to do something like that they'd soon find themselves with an enraged Touzokuou on their hands, and it would have almost been worth losing Bakura for a while to see the looks on their faces when they realised what they'd done to themselves. Almost, he wouldn't want to risk having Bakura hurt before he realised he needed to be Touzokuou, not Silver, and Ryou wasn't entirely sure of how they switched.

"_I'd_ love to borrow Silver for a while, and I don't usually like men, just women. Your instincts were most likely right, I'd bet there were at least three schemes going on to get a chance at him." She turned her attention to Dove who'd returned, carrying a tray with a bottle of brandy and two snifters set on it. "Table." Ryou raised an eyebrow when he saw the second snifter, but he didn't comment on it, focusing instead on her implied request to borrow Silver.

"And what would you do with _my_ Silver if you got your hands on him?"

"Test to see how long he could hold one of those display poses you're so fond of putting him in with a vibrator on its highest setting inside him of course."

"Inventive." Ryou brushed Silver's mind lightly, enjoying the frission of arousal Raven's words had sparked. He handed the, now only quarter-full, glass of wine down to Silver, and set Bronze down on his feet before picking up his glass of absinthe and drinking from it. :Finish the wine Silver.:

Raven looked slightly surprised at that, and he supposed he couldn't quite blame her, even if a lot of Masters allowed their subs and slaves to drink from glasses even in public he'd been making a quiet point of _not_ doing so, and he'd looked surprised at the implication that she gave Dove her own glass - although she _hadn't_ let the slave use the second snifter, preferring to let Dove sip from her own snifter, holding it for her. "I brought a couple of vibrators with me, you want to go to one of the private rooms and try your idea out?"

"I'd love to, thank you." She smiled and stood when Ryou did, signalling for Dove to stand just a second after Ryou had Silver and Bronze rise to their feet. "Tray." She assumed that Dove was following her as she walked beside Ryou, although he paused long enough to give the slave a chance to pick the tray up.

"By the way Lady Raven, was there a reason you ordered two snifters instead of just one?"

"I hoped you'd care to drink with me, of course Lord Wraith." She smiled at him as she spoke. "And now that you're offering to provide such an interesting show..."

"Ah, generous of you, my thanks. But that reminds me, we need to stop by the bar for a moment." He changed direction, and bought two bottles of expensive beer, from one of the new microbreweries, two bottles of water and had the bar staff fill a bowl with cold water as well as leaving them orders for what they were to do when he sent Bronze up to pick up the things he'd need to take care of Silver afterwards. They found a room with two comfortable chairs and not much else to perform the experiment in and Ryou had Silver strip first.

"Display pose 2." Silver spread his legs so far apart he could barely keep his balance, folded his arms behind his back, each hand gripping the opposite elbow, and then bent forward until his torso was parallel to the floor, leaving his body totally open to any caresses Ryou cared to make. Ryou pulled Silver's butt plug out quickly and lubed up the vibrator he'd brought for him, inserting it inside him slowly and then twisting it to its highest setting.

He pulled Bronze up against him when he saw Raven push Dove's head down between her legs, and cast a quick spell to keep her from hearing anything, reaching up to pull Bronze's head down as a distraction.

"I'll give you a choice, you can either ride me while we're watching Silver, or suck me, either way I'll be expecting you to keep it up until he can't maintain his posture. You'll still be covered by your tunic if you choose to ride me. I'll give a signal with my right hand, and you can act out your choice." He dropped the spell when he could see that Bronze understood and moved to sit with Raven, on the other side of the table they'd put the drinks on, in Silver's view.

-o-()-o-

Silver watched his Master from the corner of his eye, focusing mostly on keeping his balance, and using the building strain in his muscles to distract from the pleasure coming from the buzzing vibrator in his ass.

"By the way Silver, this time I _won't_ punish you when you can't hold your position, as long as you genuinely _can't_. Or if you climax." Wraith-sama laughed as he finished speaking, and Lady Raven seemed amused as well. :This signal isn't for you.: Wraith-sama gave the signal for collecting a tray with his right hand and Bronze immediately came to kneel between his legs, and pleasure him.

Lord Wraith began talking with Lady Raven, but what they were saying didn't matter, and he had a task to complete, so he began focusing on the physical sensations again. That wouldn't help keep him from climaxing though, and he let his mind wander, registering the sensations building up, and then dismissing them, pushing them to another part of his mind, losing track of the time as he felt small tremors build in his muscles.

"Bronze, go back to the bar and get the stuff I arranged for. You may speak if you need to." Silver didn't pay any real attention to Lord Wraith's words, even if they were a command they weren't for him and he needed all his focus to keep from either climaxing, or collapsing. It wasn't long after he heard Bronze returning that he couldn't hold his climax off any longer, and that put him off balance enough that he fell to his knees, barely managing to avoid landing face first on the floor.

Silver felt more than heard or saw his Master stand and come to kneel beside him, gathering him into his arms and turning the vibrator off before removing it.

"Break stance." With that Silver stopped trying to maintain what little was left of the required pose and relaxed in Lord Wraith's embrace, shivering ever so slightly and closing his eyes. He didn't respond as he felt a warm wet cloth against his skin, cleaning him off, and warming his stiff muscles, soothing some of the aches he'd accumulated, but by the time Wraith-sama followed that up with a warmed towel to dry him off the shivering had stopped and he was ready to continue serving his Master.

"Raven, was this display satisfactory for you?" Lord Wraith sat back in his chair as he spoke, casually opening his trousers and giving the signal for Silver to ride him.

"Very." Arousal was thick in her voice and she watched hungrily as Silver came and straddled his master, guiding him into his well-stretched entrance. He didn't look directly at her of course, keeping his gaze appropriately downcast and glancing at her from the corner of his eye since she was the only unfamiliar element in the room. "Does he know how to satisfy a woman with his mouth?"

"No, and I don't intend to have him learn." Silver was unbearably aroused by the warning in his Master's voice, but he was too well trained to climax from that, especially since he'd only just climaxed, and he focused on pleasing Lord Wraith instead.

"I apologise. You have been more than generous Lord Wraith, I was simply curious about his training." There was just a hint of fear in Lady Raven's voice, and Silver found that slightly amusing.

"Then you will allow me to be similarly curious about your Dove's training." Wraith-sama's voice made Silver shiver, razor blades hidden in sugar candy.

"She knows how to please a man, but not from _my_ training, and I have good reason not to share her with _any_ man, reason beyond my possessiveness." There was an edge of danger to the lady's voice, and Silver was glad when his Master heeded it.

"I won't ask about that. _I_ would never share my Silver with _any_ other dominant, submissives are a different matter of course, but you imply you'd be willing to share with a woman?"

"If I knew her well enough, and trusted her enough, yes. But I'd never take a male submissive or slave, and if I borrowed one then I would make sure Dove was somewhere else when I was playing with him." From the corner of his eyes Silver could see Dove shiver between Lady Raven's thighs, and the lady stroked her hair soothingly.

"I see. Your consideration for your slave's needs is admirable." Lord Wraith took hold of Silver's hips, and forced him to a faster pace, thrusting into him roughly. "Unfortunately I cannot stay much longer, as I have things to do tomorrow." He climaxed inside Silver and lifted him off his cock to replace the butt plug, trapping Lord Wraith's seed inside him, and set him on his feet. "Get dressed."

Silver knelt to pick up his tunic, pulling it on swiftly without rising again, then remained where he was kneeling to wait for further instructions, watching his Master from beneath lowered lashes.

"I understand. I wish I could offer the sort of show you just shared with me, but..."

"You don't often play these sort of games, and not for an audience, I understand. Besides, I don't think I'd have time to watch it. Farewell." Wraith-sama stood, bowing over Raven's hand to kiss it in formal farewell, then turned, signalling for Silver and Bronze to follow him by a flick of each hand. He took his position three steps behind Wraith-sama and one to the right, careful not to raise his eyes too far, and they made their way to the changing room they'd arrived in. Then Lord Wraith drew on his strength and Bronze's to take them both home, arriving in the playroom.

"Tunics off. I want to see you suck each other, first one to climax won't be playing anymore tonight." Bronze broke training then, turning to look directly at Lord Wraith, and starting to speak without permission.

"Wha-"

"Silence." Silver could feel the Shadow Magic their Master used, but not what it was used _for_. "If I'm not going to play with you then you can just go home, but...you spoke without permission. Come here." Silver watched discreetly as Wraith replaced Bronze's butt plug with a vibrator, turning it on, and fastened a ring gag into his mouth before turning him over his knee. "Ten blows I think." And he used a paddle to administer the blows before cuffing his hands behind his back and sending Bronze over to join Silver.

Silver shrugged mentally, their Master was making sure Bronze would be the one to climax first, even if he hadn't known a man could when wearing a cock ring until tonight. He was hard from riding Wraith-sama anyway, so it was easy enough to push into Bronze's mouth and then he grasped Bronze's hips and began the process of giving him an expert blow job as he fucked the other's mouth. He was nowhere near ready to climax again when he tasted Bronze's seed in his mouth and pulled back to kneel and wait for their Master to dismiss Bronze.

He kept his eyes cast down appropriately, but he could hear Lord Wraith releasing Bronze and removing all of the decorations adorning his body, then washing him down and drying him off, even if the last two parts of their customary aftercare seemed a little hurried. Then he heard his Master approaching, even though he knew better than to try to look up and see him without permission.

"You did well tonight Silver." He shut his eyes in pleasure as he felt his Master stroking his hair, it was permitted since he was being praised. "In fact I intend to reward you, and I'll even give you the choice of what reward I grant you." Lord Wraith pulled him to his feet, and removed all the decorations on _his_ body as he spoke before washing him down and drying him off slowly. "Think about it while you clean up the toys we've been using, then report to me in our bedroom. And just so that you have something to amuse yourself while you're doing that..." Silver could feel Wraith-sama slide a familiar silver egg inside his body, it was enchanted to vibrate at whatever interval his Master chose it to, for however long his Master chose. "This will vibrate for one minute every fifteen minutes, and I expect you to report to me within an hour and a half. Do you understand? You may speak to answer."

"Yes Wraith-sama, I understand."

"Good." Silver thought about what his Master had offered while he cleaned the equipment almost on autopilot, it was a simple enough matter anyway. All the toys they'd used that night were made of metal, and of alloys that didn't rust, and Lord Wraith had bought a small autoclave, one that took twenty minutes to cycle. The main difficulty was making sure he packed the toys in the right arrangement so that it would only take three cycles to clean everything, then pack them away, even if they were still hot. But he was kneeling in front of Wraith-sama well within the allotted time.

"What did you decide to ask for my beautiful Silver?" Lord Wraith lifted Silver's head with a finger beneath his chin so he could see Silver's face, even though he kept his eyes appropriately downcast, so _he_ couldn't see his Master's face. "You may speak."

"To spend the night in your arms, after you've taken me, and...with you still inside me?" He was being presumptuous, he knew, but his Master _had_ asked him what he wanted. Lord Wraith just laughed for a moment before responding.

"Granted, and I'll even let you come when I do. Now get on that bed and start to open yourself for me."

-o-()-o-


End file.
